Trial by Ninja
by jacobk
Summary: To become great, one must overcome great opponents. A moment of inspiration during the chuunin exam puts Sakura on the path to greatness, whether she likes it or not.
1. Chapter 1

AN: No crossover, no power-ups, just trying to write an interesting story. This is actually kind of where I thought the manga was going until they decided to break the fourth wall and make Inner Sakura some kind of split personality or something.

- Divergence not covered directly in the story: Kabuto decides not to randomly out himself as a spy after the prelims.

- Otherwise, everything from before the time-skip is canon. Post time-skip stuff will be incorporated to the extent it satisfies two of: (a) making sense; (b) being cool; or (c) fitting the plot.

Any and all reviews appreciated.

ooOoo

Sakura knew she had fallen into a trap before her foot touched the ground. A brief flash of triumph had shown on Ino's face when she had leapt forward, an unusual lapse of control in a kunoichi who prided herself on gathering information from her enemies rather than giving it away. On the other hand, the revelation came too late for Sakura to avoid landing on the blonde hair scattered about the arena floor, and a little bit of gloating was hardly out of character for Ino at all.

Sakura was able to wrench her foot around for an awkward landing that avoided all but three of the strands of hair on the ground, but she could tell that her efforts would not be enough. Her foot was immediately locked in place, and she could feel foreign chakra working its way up her body and removing her control of it bit by bit. Her momentum carried her left foot forward to land astride two more pieces of the blonde spider web laid out across the arena.

Sakura immediately brought her hands together to perform the replacement technique, but the foreign chakra finished racing up her body and froze her in place with her hands still inches apart. With her feet splayed out unnaturally and her hands still apart, she could be a very lifelike statue of an incompetent kunoichi.

Had she the freedom to do so, Sakura would have been weeping in anger and frustration. Years of training, all of her work to step out of the shadow of Ino Yamanaka and pursue her own path, and she was taken down so easily by some secret technique? Sakura at times had a hard time believing that Sasuke would ever be interested in a clanless nobody like her; she knew for certain that he would never fall for an incompetent clanless nobody. She had tried to prove herself in the Forest of Death by defending her unconscious teammates, and in the end had had to be saved by Sasuke. She had hoped to prove herself in her fight against Ino, but instead had succumbed to an easy defeat. Sakura wanted to rage at the heavens about the injustice of it all, but instead was forced to stand quietly and wait for Ino to finish her off.

"I told you you had no chance against me!" Ino crowed triumphantly, before launching into an extended soliloquoy on the subject of her superiority.

Only the technique locking her in place kept Sakura from furrowing her brows in confusion. Ino liked to talk, but in combat she usually operated with clinical efficiency. It was unlike her to prioritize taunting over victory, unless... Sakura was thankful that the trap she was in forced her to keep a straight face when she realized what was going on. Ino hadn't moved since Sakura was trapped, and she had the slight tic under her right eye that only showed when she was really straining herself. Keeping Sakura under control must be more difficult than Sakura had realized, and the talking was likely a cover for the time Ino needed to set up her next move. Sakura felt hope blossom that she might still have a shot at pulling out a victory.

The foreign chakra in her system prevented Sakura from moving her body, but it didn't do anything to her own chakra. She experimentally gathered her chakra as if she were preparing to climb a tree and directed a portion of it at her right toe, one of the points of origin of the entrapment technique. Nothing happened, and Sakura gradually increased the amount of chakra she was putting into it. After a moment there was a flickering sensation, and then the foreign chakra poured in as strongly as ever. Sakura reduced the amount of chakra she was channeling, and found that there was a specific point where the trap was neutralized at her toe.

Sakura quickly sent the same amount of chakra to both feet, only to find that only the strand of hair at her toe remained neutralized. She would have groaned out loud if she could as she realized that this was going to be more like picking a lock than climbing a tree-each individual strand of hair was apparently going to require a precise level of chakra to be applied to it that would vary from point to point.

Fortunately, Sakura was good at picking locks and excellent at controlling chakra. She started a miniscule amount of chakra swirling about both feet and gradually increased it, making a mental note of when each strand of hair was neutralized. That done, she carefully split her concentration between each foot and maintained the proper level of chakra at each point to cancel the trap. She felt control of her body return to her just as Ino finished up her big speech.

"Why should I bother knocking you out, when I can just have you give up instead?" Ino asked, bringing her hands up in a targeting pose after she finished making hand signs. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

Sakura dove to the side as Ino's body fell to the ground. Standing up, Sakura confirmed that her body was still under her own control and had to stifle a sigh of relief. The operation of the mind-body transfer technique was something of an open secret within Konoha. Ino's spirit would be transferred at high speed towards her indicated target, but then would only be able to move at a slow walking pace. It was the greatest tool of infilitration known to the Elemental Nations, but used in combat against a mobile opponent it was a glorified suicide technique.

Sakura jogged briskly around the net of blonde laid out on the arena floor and approached Ino's prone form. She grabbed Ino by her shortened hair and drew her head back before drawing the flat of a kunai across her opponent's throat.

"Winner: Haruno Sakura." The proctor announced quietly, jumping down to the floor to make sure that Ino would recover properly from her final technique.

Sakura released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as she stood up. She was filled with a quiet sense of pride as she realized she had done it. She, the no-name pink-haired billboard brow, beat Ino Yamanaka in a fight and was going to the finals of the chuunin exam. She was going to have a chance to prove herself in front of Sasuke and in front of everybody in Konoha.

The crowd remained silent, of course. A group of ninja observers was hardly likely to break into applause, but Sakura liked to imagine that as she stood there in the arena, they began to regard her with a certain amount of respect. A respect that-her internal thoughts were interrupted by a shout from above.

"Hey hey, Sakura, I knew you could do it! That was way cooler than that bastard Sasuke! Team Seven all the way!"

Sakura buried her face in her hands, reminded that no moment in her life was so perfect that it couldn't be ruined by her blonde-haired teammate.

ooOoo

"This is awesome, our whole team is going to be promoted for sure!" Naruto announced, scampering around the room Team 7 had commandeered for their post-exam meeting. "You have to teach us some awesome techniques now, sensei!"

Sakura couldn't see Kakashi's expression behind the mask, but she was pretty sure he was smiling. As well he should be, with three students in the finals of the chuunin exam. Sakura wasn't sure exactly what jounin-senseis were expected to accomplish, but having three rookies promoted on their first year had to be pretty rare.

"Well, there's a bit of a problem there." Kakashi said, looking around the room to see that he had his team's attention. Sakura was politely attentive, as always, and Sasuke, though a little wobbly on his feet after his stay in the hospital, was also focused on his sensei.

"Naruto, do you remember the tournament matchups?"

"I'm fighting that bastard Neji! And then, um..." Naruto said, furrowing his brow in concentration. Sakura decided to break in and move things along.

"And then you would fight the winner of the match between Temari and Gaara." Sakura said. "On the other side of the bracket, Sasuke will fight Shikamaru and I will fight Dosu. If we both win, the winner of the fight between us fights the winner of the match between Shino and Kankuro."

"Exactly." Kakashi said, nodding his head in approval. "I can't really train all three of you together since you're so likely to fight each other. I'll be spending this month training Sasuke since there are some things he can only learn from me."

Kakashi paused for a moment to tap the forehead protector covering his Sharingan eye before continuing. "I've arranged a teacher for you and Sakura while I'm gone. You don't have to worry so much about keeping techniques secret from each other since you'd only meet in the finals."

Kakashi looked back as a silhouette of a man appeared in the doorway. "And here he is now. Naruto, Sakura, you're in good hands. I'll see you in a month!"

With that, Kakashi took Sasuke by the shoulder and disappeared in a puff of smoke before his students could object. That hardly prevented Naruto from voicing his displeasure as he saw who his substitute sensei would be.

"What? I'm not taking lessons from some perv-" Naruto's complaint was cut off as the man yanked him into the corner for a whispered conversation out of Sakura's earshot.

With the ease of long practice, Sakura forced down her embarassment at Naruto's behavior and focused on the man in front of her. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, somewhat younger than Kakashi, although that impression could come from the way his jet black hair contrasted with the wild shock of grey hair on Kakashi's head. He was tall, with the slender build so common among Konoha shinobi. Sakura figured he was more likely to be a versatile expert in ninjutsu than a taijutsu powerhouse, although of course appearances could be deceiving. With the sunglasses and the overall air of professional competence he had carried about him as he entered the room, he gave every indication of being a dangerous man.

That impression was undercut somewhat by the frantic argument he was currently engaged in with Naruto, but Sakura wasn't inclined to weigh that too heavily. Naruto had a way of getting under anybody's skin.

The squabbling pair came to some kind of resolution, and Naruto came marching over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sakura. Sakura could tell from his folded arms and petulant expression that Naruto wasn't happy, but she figured that even he wouldn't want to immediately alienate his only source of training in the month before the final exams. From what she had seen, Neji was an extremely skilled fighter; she didn't think Naruto had much of a chance even with a month of training, but she was certain he would have no chance in a fight agains the Hyuuga boy today. As to her own fight, Sakura was trying not to think about it, and as her temporary instructor made his way forward to introduce himself, she did her best to shove her worries into the back of her mind.

"Hello there! My name is Ebisu," the man said, before pausing to push his sunglasses back up his nose. "I am a special jounin who specializes in training other ninja. I have the honor of being the personal tutor for the grandson of the Hokage, and for the next thirty days I will be teaching you."

He paused in his speech to give the two members of team seven a searching look. Sakura found herself straightening her shoulders and hoping he wouldn't be disappointed with her.

"I know you've both had a long day, so the intense training won't really start until tomorrow." He continued. "But we don't really have any time to waste before the exam, so I'd like to spend the rest of the day getting a sense of your skills."

ooOoo

Sakura wasn't sure what to expect as she and Naruto followed their temporary instructor onto training ground thirty-nine. Located adjacent to the public baths, the training ground was relatively small and featureless. The cleared area was only broken up by a few trees, and a small pond that was fed by some of the same hot springs that were utilized by the baths. It didn't really offer enough room for a knock-down drag-out fight, and Sakura was actually pretty grateful for that. After making her way through the Forest of Death in the morning and fighting Ino that afternoon, the last thing she wanted to see was for her sensei to pull out some stupid bell to fight over.

Fighting seemed to be the last thing on Ebisu's mind as he strode out into the middle of the clearing before turning to his students. "Now, we will begin work on... a chakra control exercise!"

"What!" Naruto shouted, outraged. "I thought you wanted to see what I can do? You're just afraid to fight me and my super-awesome techniques!"

"Naruto." Ebisu interrupted. Somewhat to Sakura's surprise, the blonde quieted down. "I've seen you fight. I've seen your... techniques. What I want to see now is how you learn."

Sakura was touched by his sincerity, and even Naruto looked at Ebisu with something like respect as he continued to speak. "Besides, I think you'll find this exercise quite rewarding."

Finished with his speech, Ebisu turned his back on his students and walked forward, towards the pond... and on top of it. Both Sakura and Naruto watched with wide eyes as he stood and faced them from the center of the pond, just as solidly as if he were standing on solid ground.

"Water-walking is similar to tree-climbing in that you channel chakra to your feet, but the difference is that you must constantly adjust the chakra level you use to match up with the change in the water under your feet. The trick is to get a feel for the water rather than just learning to send some pre-determined amount of chakra to your feet." Ebisu smiled at them. "Sakura, with your impressive performance against the Yamanaka Body Bind, you shouldn't have any trouble with this."

Sakura was heartened by his praise, but Naruto was the first person to try the technique. With a cry of "I'll get this right away, believe it!" he charged forward to the pond, gathered up enough chakra that Sakura could feel it from thirty feet away, and stepped out onto the water. Much to her surprise, his right foot stayed above the pool. However, as he stepped forward his foot slipped out from under him, and Naruto plunged face first into the water.

"Ah! Hot!" Naruto exclaimed as he scrambled back up to shore.

Ignoring the byplay between her teacher and her teammate, Sakura circled around to the other side of the pool of water, considering this new technique. It was nice that Ebisu thought she would be able to do this, but she still wasn't the kind of ninja to jump right into things, especially in a situation like this. She didn't bring any swimwear to change into, and she didn't fancy a damp walk home. Cautiously, she channeled chakra to her right foot and placed it on the water.

She felt some resistance as her foot touched the pool, and gradually shifted her weight onto it. When her foot started to sink down, she quickly channeled more chakra into it until it rested calmly on the water once again. She let out a soft hum of satisfaction when she stood normally, one foot on water and one foot on the land.

Deciding there was nothing for it now but to take the (hopefully) figurative plunge, Sakura brought her left foot around, sending a similar amount of chakra into it and nodding in satisfaction when she stood completely on the water. Keeping her attention focused on her feet, Sakura noticed that there was a type of feedback that reminded her of the feedback she felt trying to escape from Ino's trap. As the water ebbed and flowed beneath her feet she felt her footing start to destabilize a couple of times, but by shifting her chakra output in the way that felt right she found that she was able to maintain her position on top of the water.

After a couple of minutes Sakura felt comfortable enough to take a few experimental steps on the water, and finally jumped up in the air triumphantly, maintaining her footing on the landing.

"I did it!" Sakura exclaimed, finally looking up, only to find that no eyes were on her. Instead, Naruto was on the far side of the training ground, engaged in a furious argument with a white-haired man while Ebisu lay sprawled on the ground nearby.

As Sakura watched, the white-haired man seemed to grow tired of the argument, and leapt onto the back of a-toad?-that had appeared in a puff of smoke. The toad high-tailed it out of the training ground, with Naruto in hot pursuit.

Sakura blinked a couple of times and pinched her arm, but the scene before her remained unchanged. Finally, she decided that whatever was going on, Naruto was more likely to be embarassed than seriously hurt chasing the toad-man around Konoha, and she really ought to look after her teacher. Suiting action to thoughts, she walked over to where Ebisu lay face first on the ground. Rolling him over onto his back, she was pleased to find that he was conscious, although he definitely looked like he had been on the wrong end of a beating.

"Oh, Sakura... meet me for training tomorrow at nine o'clock at training ground nineteen." Ebisu said, coughing. "Also, your first assignment... is to carry me to the hospital."

With his message successfully completed, Ebisu let go of whatever reserve of strength had kept him going and passed out. Sakura folded her arms across her chest and sighed. This exam was definitely not going the way she had hoped.

ooOoo

Sakura entered training ground nineteen the next day carrying five practice kunai, ten practice shuriken, and a healthy dose of righteous fury. She kept her anger in check until she could confirm her suspicions with Ebisu.

"Sakura, right on time. I'm glad your sensei hasn't rubbed off on you too much." Ebisu said, smiling at her. "We can get started right away, since Naruto has found a new instructor."

"The Toad Sage Jiraiya?" Sakura asked.

"Just so." Ebisu replied, regarding her seriously over her sunglasses. Sakura took his silence as an invitation to continue.

"There aren't that many white-haired ninja who can summon toads, you know." She said. "Which means that you should have recognized him right away, and that you would never have gotten into a fight with one of the Legendary Three... unless it was a setup."

"Hm." Ebisu replied, non-commitally. "Kakashi did say you were the smart one."

"So this whole time the plan is that Sasuke gets trained by Sharingan Kakashi, Naruto gets tutored by the legendary Jiraiya, and I get lessons from... you." Sakura said, anger entering her voice. "What the hell?"

"Sakura, you wound me," Ebisu said, placing his hand over his heart. "You should know, the greatest ninja isn't necessarily the greatest teacher. I am the personal tutor for the Hokage's grandson, after all."

"That would be great if I had to fight some academy brat, but I have to fight Dosu!" Sakura said, some fear apparent in her voice despite her best efforts to keep her voice steady. "The guy punched out an Akimichi Meat Tank in the preliminaries, how am I supposed to beat that?"

"Tch, and here I thought you showed some promise in looking underneath the underneath." Ebisu said, still calm. "You shouldn't be asking yourself how tough the honorable grandson is in a fight... you should be asking how I was able to secure the position as his tutor.

"I'm trying to introduce something new here, a ninja as a teaching specialist. Besides the honorable grandson, I have had as my students three individuals who failed the ANBU entrance exam." Ebisu continued, pausing to push his sunglasses up his nose. "I can't tell you their names because all three are now active-duty ANBU."

Sakura stayed silent, not fully convinced but also not willing to further antagonize her only source of training for the next month.

"However tough Dosu may be, I assure you that he wouldn't measure up to the average ANBU examiner." Ebisu said. "Now, are you ready to train or do you have any other complaints?"

ooOoo

Three hours later Sakura was flat on her back, trying to catch her breath. Her lungs were burning, her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest, and her muscle cramps had muscle cramps.

It had become clear early on that Ebisu was not going to spend a month teaching her some kind of advanced ninjutsu. Instead, the morning had been a combination of Sakura's least favorite moments at the academy. He had her spend the morning running, jumping, performing pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, and basically exhausting herself.

When they'd taken a break for ninjutsu practice Ebisu kept the academy style focus. He had her perform the basic three techniques, over and over and over again, until Sakura started fumbling them from lack of chakra. Then it was back to physical exercise.

At this moment her temporary teacher stood over her, his smiling face barely visible from where she had collapsed. "Ready for your lunch break?"

"G'way..." Sakura didn't have the breathe to tell Ebisu exactly how she was feeling, but he seemed to get the idea, as he unsealed a bottle of water from a scroll on his belt and offered it to her to drink. Somewhat to her surprise, once she had finished the drink her cramping started to subside, and she felt like she might actually be able to walk back to the village for lunch.

"It's a mineral supplement, designed to let the hard working kunoichi keep working hard." Ebisu explained. "You should probably pick up your own at some point."

With that, he turned and walked off the training field. Sakura scrambled to her feet, stifling a pained groan as she did so, and followed him as best she could. Fortunately, the training ground they had chosen was not too far from Konoha's restaurant district, and they soon found themselves in front of one of the Akimichi's barbeque joints. Ebisu led Sakura inside and purchased access to the all-you-can-eat buffet for both of them.

Sakura took advantage of the buffet to put together a salad that she was looking forward to digging into before Ebisu dumped a plateful of meat on top of it.

"Hey! I can't eat that stuff, I'm on a diet." She exclaimed indignantly.

"You need to eat to keep up your energy." Ebisu said, smiling indulgently. "If you're that worried about it, we can up the intensity of the exercise in the afternoon to help burn off the calories."

"No, no need for that." Sakura decided that discretion was the better part of valor on this point. Besides, she was pretty hungry.

Ebisu was content to allow Sakura to eat for a while, or at least aware enough to know that Sakura wouldn't pay attention to him until she had finished inhaling about half of her meal. Eventually she slowed down as her body's demand for nutrients quieted to a dull roar, and Ebisu began peppering her with theoretical questions.

Small group tactics, chakra theory, explosive tag load-Ebisu hit all of the major areas of ninja book learning. Fortunately for Sakura, his questions weren't any harder than the questions from the written portion of the exam, and she hadn't needed to cheat to finish those. She was pretty confident that she was doing well at the impromptu quiz when Ebisu leaned forward and pulled her forehead protector down over her eyes. When she protested and made to push it up on her forehead he leaned forward and held her hands flat on the table.

"Last question for lunch time, Sakura... how many forehead protectors are in this restaurant?"

Sakura's mind raced as she tried to piece together a mental picture of the restaurant. The barbeque restaurant was a popular destination for ninja and civilian alike, as it was known for providing large quantities of pretty good food for pretty good prices. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she tried to combine her memories of walking in the door, heading through the buffet, walking to their booth, and surveying the room as she ate. Finally she was ready to give Ebisu his answer just as she heard the jingling of the entry bell.

"Twelve."

"Close, but not quite. You missed two." Ebisu said, releasing her hands. Sakura made no move to remove her impromptu blindfold.

"There's you, me, the two in the booth behind us, six sitting in the corner, and two at the bar." Sakura explained.

"You forgot the two at the table by the door." Ebisu replied.

"They were finishing up when you pulled down my hitaite, and I heard them leave after you asked the question." Sakura said.

"Hmm. Not bad." Ebisu said, something like respect in his tone. "But you really should answer the question right away."

ooOoo

After a six days of training, Sakura was walking home from her session with Ebisu with... well, she didn't have enough energy to have a spring in her step, but she was feeling pretty good. Ebisu had kept up the furious pace of training, and each day she had found herself able to do a little bit more, and finish her tasks a little bit faster. She was still not sure how she was going to win her fight, but she was at least confident that she was getting some good training out of the exam. Sakura was planning what to do with her upcoming day off when a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hey hey, Sakura, how are you doing?" Sakura turned to see a familiar orange ball of energy headed her way. She smiled, happy to see one of her teammates for the first time in a while.

"I just finished training, so I'm feeling pretty good." Sakura replied. A thought crossed her mind, and she stopped to think for a moment. She hadn't had a chance to talk to anybody her age much this week, and she was curious about what training with a legendary ninja was like... even if finding out was going to be troublesome. "Actually, I was about to get dinner, if you want to come along?"

"Awesome! It'll be like a-" Naruto began, before Sakura interrupted him with a bop to the back of the head.

"It'll be like two friends catching up over a meal." She instructed him firmly. "Don't push it."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto grumbled. His natural exuberance couldn't remain suppressed for long, though, and he was soon scampering ahead of Sakura, jabbering on in stream of consciousness mode about perverts, training, and sometimes both. Somehow the two of them wound up settling down to eat at Naruto's favorite ramen stand.

"... and anyways, I'm going to be summoning some really strong toads next week, they'll help me kick Neji's butt for sure!" Naruto said, before pausing to catch his breath, giving Sakura an opportunity to get a word in.

"That's-wait, he let you sign the toad contract?" Sakura asked, shocked. They learned in the academy about summons animals, of course, but summoning contracts were quite rare, and access to them jealously guarded. If Jiraiya had allowed Naruto to summon the toads, it indicated that he was interested in more than a one-month training commitment.

"Yeah, my name's right under the Fourth Hokage, just like my face is going to be right next to him on the mountain." Naruto said, puffing out his chest, before deflating slightly and scratching the back of his head. "Just as soon as I figure out how to summon something besides those stupid tadpoles."

The two teammates lapsed into a companionable silence for a while as they tucked into their meals. Sakura usually would avoid such greasy food, but she had decided to take Ebisu's advice to heart and put her diet on hold for a while. After a moment Naruto seemed to realize that he had been monopolizing the conversation thus far.

"Ne, Sakura, what has that closet pervert been teaching you?" He asked.

"Mostly a lot of physical training and focusing on the basics." Sakura replied, overlooking the insult to her temporary sensei. She had long since realized that Naruto seemed to regard all the males of Konoha as perverts for some reason. Sometimes she was inclined to agree, but unfortunately she wasn't in a position to beat the love of pornography out of the ninja of the leaf... yet.

"That sounds really boring." Naruto replied.

"Hey! Well, it kind of is. I think I'm getting stronger, but I don't know how I'm going to win my fight." Sakura said.

"You'll figure something out." Naruto said, always the optimist. "You were the smartest person in our class. Well, except for Shikamaru. And maybe Shino, that guy seemed like he was really sharp. And-"

"Thanks, Naruto." Sakura interrupted before Naruto could cross the line from a backhanded compliment to outright insult. She started to comment on his confidence in her, but held back when he suddenly glared over his shoulder.

"You." Naruto said. Sakura hadn't heard such outright contempt from her teammate before. She was confused until she turned to see the grey-haired medic that they had befriended during the earlier stage of the exam.

"Yes, me." Kabuto said, raising his hands as if in surrender. "I just wanted to congratulate both of you on making the finals."

"Well, it just goes to show what you can accomplish when you don't quit." Naruto replied.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that," Kabuto said, "but I only just got out of the hospital."

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, his kind-hearted nature overcoming his anger.

"Well, before we met up with you my team got into a pretty rough fight. I was able to heal up the surface wounds, but I couldn't really do anything for the internal bleeding." Kabuto explained, looking slightly sheepish. "They said if I had waited any longer to see a real medic I probably would have died."

"Wait," Sakura jumped in, "if you were so badly hurt why did you keep going?"

"Even with his life in danger, he didn't quit on his team." Naruto interrupted, totally won over. "I knew you had the will of fire!"

"It wasn't really that noble," Kabuto said, scratching the back of his head and settling into a seat at their table. "I just didn't want to take the stupid exam again. I was hoping there wouldn't be a preliminary round this year."

Sakura nodded in acknowledgement, then decided to take advantage of Kabuto's presence. "Any advice for the finals?"

"I can definitely tell you what not to do." Kabuto said, spreading his hands helplessly. "Seriously though, you guys should be fine.

"Naruto, I've heard that Jiraiya is a little eccentric, but he knows what he's doing when it comes to training." Kabuto continued. "And Sakura, I heard you talking a little bit before, it sounds like your sensei knows what the judges are looking for. It doesn't really matter if you win your fights, just that you impress the judges."

"So I don't even need to win one fight?" Sakura asked, feeling a sense of relief. From what she had seen from her opponent in the Forest of Death and the preliminaries, she had a feeling that all of her training so far only had her in the foothills of the mountain she would need to climb to beat him.

"Yes. I won a match in the finals once, and didn't get promoted, while one of my teammates lost his only fight and made chuunin. Although..." Kabuto hesitated, hesitant to broach an unpleasant topic. "You're still in the arena with somebody from another village, it's a little risky to trust your safety to their sense of restraint."

"Hey, don't talk like that. Sakura is going to wipe the floor with that mummy!" Naruto announced. For some reason, the certainty in Naruto's tone made Sakura feel a little more confident, even though she knew Naruto had no real basis for his statement.

"Yeah, I'm not going to give up just like that." Sakura said, trying to project some confidence.

"Sure, sure." Kabuto said, although from the understanding expression in his eyes Sakura didn't think she had fooled him at all. "You know, Sakura, your chakra control is probably good enough that you could learn some medical techniques. I could show you some tricks before the exam, if you like."

Looking into Kabuto's friendly face, Sakura felt a reassuring sense of companionship. It was good to know that, when it came down to it, Konoha ninja could look to each other for a helping hand.

ooOoo 


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura decided to begin her day off by getting her errands out of the way. Ebisu had made it clear that he would no longer be supplying her with her mineral supplement after the first week of training, so she definitely needed to pick that up. She had a few other domestic chores to take care of, but she had high hopes that she would be able to fit in some soak time in the public bath before her meeting with Kabuto that evening.

It turned out that the supplement was readily available from the Yamanaka flower shop, as apparently it used a lot of the same ingredients that were used in plant fertilizer. That was another reason to buy it today-Sunday was the one day Sakura was sure that Ino wouldn't be helping mind the store.

Of course, when Sakura arrived at the store, she heard the familiar voice of her rival drifting over from behind the counter. "Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, how can I help-oh, it's you."

"Ino. I didn't know you were working today." Sakura said. Meeting her former friend always gave rise to a confusing mix of emotions, but things felt different this time. She still felt a certain amount of anger and competitiveness over their long term contest for Sasuke's attention, to be sure. There was that element of comfort created by seeing somebody who was such a familiar face. The ever present sense of wistfulness at their lost friendship. But what was missing was the pressing need to prove herself, to prove her independence, that Sakura had always felt on seeing her rival. Instead, she just felt tired of the divide between them.

"Well, I have you to thank for that, forehead." Ino replied. "Daddy says that if you're going to use secret family techniques in front of a bunch of foreign ninja, you'd better not lose."

Sakura didn't quite know what to say to that, and simply busied herself with finding the item she had come to buy. When she made her way to the front to pay she hesitated, but decided that she wanted to speak.

"About the exam..." Sakura said, trailing off. Ino raised an eyebrow in response and Sakura continued. "It was a good fight, right?"

"Heh, yeah. It was a good fight." Ino replied. "Until you got lucky at the end."

"Tsch, whatever." Sakura said. "I'm just saying, two or three years ago, I never imagined I would win a fight like that."

"Two or three years ago... back when we were friends."

"Back when they called me your little pink shadow." Sakura said, then sighed. "You were a good friend, probably better than I deserved. You pulled me out of my shell, you protected me from everybody, but... I couldn't hide behind you forever. I had to find my own way, you know?"

"What are you saying?" Ino asked, skeptical.

"I'm saying, even though we're rivals, maybe we could still be friends too?" Sakura asked. She didn't think years of rivalry could end so easily, but she missed the cameraderie that she and Ino used to share.

"So... you got what you needed before out of being my friend, now you've gotten what you need out of our fighting, and now you think you can use my friendship again?" Ino's tone was scathing, and Sakura flinched away from her.

"What, no, I mean-" Fortunately, Ino interrupted her stammering by breaking into laughter.

"You should have seen your face!" Ino said, still chuckling. "Come on, I'm not going to get that bent out of shape over losing one fight."

Sakura let out a sigh of relief before Ino continued.

"Of course, I'm still the one that Sasuke's going to wind up with in the end." Ino said, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Tsch," Sakura snorted, finally starting to relax, "I don't think Sasuke's going to be interested in any little genin girl after the exam."

"Ha! You better make good use of your head start, because I'll be passing the next time the exams roll around." Ino replied, then glanced at the clock. "Look, I get off around noon-why don't you come back then, I know a salon that can make something stylish out of that pink mop of yours."

"Hey, I'm not the only one here who looks like her hair was hacked off with a kunai!"

ooOoo

Later that evening Sakura found herself standing in front of the hospital sporting a brand new hair cut. She had also purchased a brand new dress, hair tie, hair decorations, and sandals, all of which where safely stored away at home. She had forgotten how good Ino used to be at talking her into spending her allowance-something that hadn't changed much now that they were earning a real paycheck.

Sakura fidgeted with the hem of her red dress for a moment before gathering herself and walking into the hospital. The reception area was empty except for the receptionist, seated behind a desk at the far end of the room. Several rows of seating testified to the fact that a military village like Konoha could produce hectic times at the hospital. Not seeing Kabuto anywhere, Sakura made her way up to the reception desk.

"Excuse me, I'm here to see Yakushi Kabuto?" She said, unsure of just how well known Kabuto was.

"Of course, what is your condition?" The receptionist asked politely, readying an intake form.

"What? Oh, no, I'm just here to see Kabuto." Sakura replied.

"Oh. Ohhhhh." The receptionist looked over her glasses at Sakura. "Aren't you a little young, dear?"

"What, no, I mean..." Sakura sputtered, before she was interrupted by the appearance of Kabuto himself.

"Kaoru, please, Sakura is here because she's thinking about becoming a medic and wanted me to show her around." Kabuto said, before turning to Sakura. "Don't mind her, she likes to have a little fun with my friends."

Judging from the receptionist's reaction to Kabuto's entrance, Sakura suspected that it was more likely that she wanted to scare off any competition for his attention. That was fine with Sakura-as nice as Kabuto was, he was just nowhere near as cool as Sasuke.

Kabuto led Sakura out of the reception area and back into the working section of the hospital. Somewhat to Sakura's surprise, he did take the time to give her a tour of the place. Most impressive to her was the operating theater, which contained a dizzying area of equipment that required tremendous chakra control and technical knowledge to operate. Kabuto patiently answered all of Sakura's questions about the gadgetry, showing off an impressive array of knowledge and experience. Sakura supposed that it made sense, being the son of the head of the hospital and everything, but a lot of it seemed to her to be knowledge that would be beyond most genin.

Finally, Kabuto finished the tour by leading her to his office. After checking the hallway to be sure that nobody was around, he pulled the door shut and closed the blinds.

"One of the perks of being my father's son is that I'm the only genin with an office." Kabuto explained, as he took a seat behind his desk and gestured for Sakura to take a seat as well. "Remember, as a genin you really shouldn't be learning medical techniques, so you'll need to keep this quiet. I got a bit of a special dispensation because of my father."

"I understand." Sakura replied. She didn't exactly plan to become an itinerant healer over the next month, and once you were in the ring it was pretty much anything goes, as Gaara had demonstrated during the preliminary matches.

"Ok, let me think. We're going to be skipping a lot of steps here so that you can learn something useful in time for the finals." Kabuto said. He paused for a moment, and then held out his right hand, palms up. A green glow appeared at his fingertips for a moment before fading away. "Medical chakra is the building block of all medical techniques.

"Really, every medical technique pretty much comes down to getting the medical chakra to do what you want it to do. It's a real test of your control to generate the medical chakra in the first place, and after that it can be kind of squirrelly. Fortunately, you won't need to worry about that too much."

Kabuto paused, before fixing Sakura with a serious look.

"If you remember nothing else I say, remember this: medical chakra is not something to play around with. Before you heal somebody else you need serious training on anatomy and chakra networks that you don't have time to do. I don't want to hear about you healing some friend's skinned knee and giving them skin cancer." Kabuto then sat back and smiled. "Fortunately, you don't have to worry about that when you're healing yourself. Just shoving medical chakra at your own wounds will seriously speed recovery time. It's like how circulating chakra encourages healing, but supercharged."

"Cool." Sakura replied. It really was. She knew she was not nearly as durable as many of the other competitors, but the ability to easily heal minor wounds could help close the gap. "So how do I make medical chakra?"

"Well, there are two ways to train. One is that I give you a bunch of books about the philosophy and theory of healing and you meditate until you get in touch with your 'inner healer' and figure out how to generate medical chakra for yourself." Kabuto said. Sakura got the feeling that was not the approach he was going to recommend. "Or... I generate medical chakra while you generate regular chakra, and we allow the two to mix so that you can get a feel for what you're going for."

Sakura was genuinely shocked by that suggestion, and couldn't help rocking back in her chair. Mingling chakra with another person did provide strong feedback as to the nature of their chakra-chakra that was the next best thing to a physical embodiment of their soul. It was considered an intimate act, something that Sakura hadn't planned to do with anybody until Sasuke succumbed to her charms.

Kabuto sensed Sakura's reluctance and held up his hands in placating fashion. "Look, this isn't something that you have to do. I'm happy to lend you my reference books, you may even be able to generate medical chakra in time for the finals."

"But that would be the fastest way." Sakura said. Kabuto nodded in response, and she lapsed into thought, chewing her lip as she thought. Kabuto had been nothing but helpful to her throughout the chuunin exams. He was pretty much the textbook definition of a harmless ninja, and she didn't think he would recommend anything that wasn't in her best interests.

"Ok, let's do this." She said, nodding firmly.

After confirming that she was certain, Kabuto held out his right hand again, and this time a steady ball of green chakra appeared above his palm, glowing gently. Sakura held out her own right and and channeled chakra above her palm. Soon it became visible as a steady column of blue light. She gingerly brought her hand over and touched her chakra to the medical chakra Kabuto was holding.

Sakura was immediately overhwhelmed by a sense of security and friendly affection. It reminded her of when she was a tiny little girl and her father would hold her in his arms during a thunderstorm-like the whole world could fall down around her and she'd be kept safe. She let out an involuntary whimper when the feeling disappeared.

"So, did you get a sense of the medical chakra?" Kabuto asked.

"Um, not exactly." Sakura replied, blushing as she realized that she had focused solely on the emotional feedback coming through Kabuto's chakra.

"That's ok." Kabuto said, giving her a friendly smile as the light glinted off his glasses. "We can keep trying until you get it."

By the time she left the hospital, Sakura was able to produce a sort of turquoise-ish chakra that Kabuto described as a good first step. Fortunately, she would be able to work on generating medical chakra on her own, and Kabuto agreed to meet with her shortly before the finals to review her progress. As she left, Sakura couldn't help thinking to herself that even if she didn't get a promotion out of the exam, she was happy that she had gained a friend.

ooOoo

The next week of training with Ebisu continued where they had left off. He kept working Sakura to exhaustion, both physically and with the academy techniques. He kept critiquing the versimillitude of her clone and transformation techniques, far more painstakingly than her academy instructors. And Sakura felt like she was getting a little better each day.

On Friday they broke early for lunch, and Sakura was happy to have the chance to catch her breath while Ebisu assumed what she had come to call his lecture pose.

"Sakura, do you know why I have focused so much on your transformation technique?" Ebisu asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question, and Sakura bit back a comment about the detail-oriented personality disorder she suspected Ebisu was suffering from.

"In the academy, you learn how to perform a transformation that will stand up to static examination." Ebisu said. "That's fine if you just want to create confusion on the battlefield, but it's no good for an infiltration mission. If you want a disguise that stands up to scrutiny, you need a transformation that moves like a human being.

"That is why I have had you focus so much on visualizing the skeletal and muscular structure when you transform. That's the only way that you can move like a human being instead of some kind of zombie thing." Ebisu explained. "Today I could tell that your transformation has finally reached the point that it passes at least superficial scrutiny."

From Ebisu these were words of high praise, and Sakura took a moment to preen as Ebisu walked over to his bag. He withdrew small pouch from his bag and held it out to Sakura.

"That is why I have decided to give you an infiltration mission."

ooOoo

Sakura walked briskly towards Yakiniku Q, the take-out stand favored by Team 10 for their lunch needs. Ebisu had left her just enough time to read his "mission objectives" and come up with a plan. She had burned the mission file after committing it to memory, and the subtle weight of the vial in her pocket was the only physical evidence that this was anything other than an ordinary training day for Haruno Sakura.

Making her way up to the stand, Sakura eyed the girl behind the counter. A few years older than Sakura, and identified by her nametag as "Naoko", the girl looked to be a few years older than Sakura. She had a pretty face that was nicely framed by her straight brown hair, and was a couple of inches taller than the aspiring kunoichi. Sakura easily suppressed the flare of jealousy as she observed that the girl was considerably more developed as well.

"Excuse me, I'm here to pick up lunch for Team 10." Sakura said as she made it to the front of the line.

"Team 10?" Naoko asked, skeptically.

"Yeah, I'm training with them today." Sakura explained. "Since they're doing me a favor, I agreed to come pick up lunch."

"You know, we usually deliver." Naoko said.

"What!" Sakura said, an angry look stealing over her face. "I can't believe those guys!"

After a moment, Sakura calmed down with a sigh. "Look, I'm already here, there's no point in both of us walking all the way back there."

"Fair enough," Naoko said, shrugging as she brought the order out from behind the counter. "That'll be 1850 ryo."

Sakura reached into her pocket, pulled out a wad of small bills, and carefully counted out exact change. "Um... do they usually tip?"

"Yeah, but you know what-you saved me a trip, so don't worry about it." Naoko said, with a sympathetic smile.

Sakura thanked her and walked off down the road. Once she was alone she hopped up into a nearby tree. A moment later an identical copy of Naoko hopped down from the tree. She gave a couple of experimental bounces, adjusted her name tag, and sauntered off towards training ground thirteen.

It was tricky to maintain the proper stride as she made her way to her targets. From what she had scene Naoko was quite graceful, for a civilian. However, she clearly had no shinobi training. Accordingly, Sakura had to make sure that she walked along in a smooth, comfortable fashion, but not so smooth as to arouse suspicions. It required a lot of focus, and as a result Sakura was genuinely surprised when Asuma appeared out of the woods at her side, snatching a kunai out of the air.

"Eep!" Sakura went with her natural reaction, dropping her food and stumbling backwards for a second. Asume looked at her sternly.

"You should be careful when you walk out onto a training ground." He gestured at the sign marking the boundary of the area.

"Sorry." Sakura looked down at the ground shamefacedly, kneeling down to retrieve the food. "It's just such a nice day and I wasn't really paying attention."

"It's ok." Asuma said, his expression softening. "My cute little genin also need to learn not to kill the delivery girl. Ino!"

Ino came trotting out of the forest, waving her hands in denial. "That was totally Shikamaru's fault, sensei! He set up a trap and my job was to throw the kunai at the right time... but I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"Food!" Ino was cut off as Chouji came charging out of the woods. He quickly shoved some money into Sakura's hands, then claimed the largest portion of the lunch for himself, handing the rest off to his teammates. The three young members of Team 10 followed in his wake as he dashed off to their usual lunch spot.

Once they were out of sight, Asume turned to Sakura with a smile. "Ebisu's really got you doing the complete ninja thing, ne?"

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Sakura asked, looking up from counting the money. She didn't think she was seriously going to fool a jounin, but denying an accusation was probably part of the test.

She offered the change to Asuma, who indicated that she should hold on to it and sent her on her way with a cheerful wave. Sakura whistled happily as she walked off, mission complete and an extra 218 ryo in her pocket.

ooOoo

A few hours later, Asuma stood puffing on a cigarette, contemplating the sleeping forms of his students. He had decided that Ino and Chouji definitely needed some extra counter-infiltration training, but he still wasn't sure if Shikamaru had been taken in or just wanted an afternoon nap.

ooOoo

Over the next week and a half, the routine remained the same. Physical exertion near to the point of exhaustion, and mind-numbing repetition of the same three techniques. During her free time Sakura worked on generating medical chakra, which made her feel like she was making some progress, but obviously wasn't going to be enough to win a fight by itself. Sakura held in her complaints as long as she could, but finally could keep quiet no longer as it came down to only one full week of training until the test.

"Sensei, what the hell?" She asked, throwing aside the log that had been balanced across her shoulders as she finished a set of push-ups. "Are you going to teach me any new ninjutsu at all?"

"Ah." Ebisu smiled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I was wondering when you would finally snap. The answer is: I already have."

"We haven't done anything new at all!" Sakura replied.

"So you say." Ebisue said. "Here, try making a pair of clones."

Sakura raced through the handsigns, and two copies of herself shimmered into existence. Ebisu nodded, then continued.

"Now, do it again but leave off the last hand sign."

Sakura dismissed her clones, and then formed the first two signs for the clone technique, then focused on pushing her chakra through to the end. After the thousands of repetitions she had put in over the past week, it felt like her chakra was sliding along a groove as two clones again popped into being.

"Now, one hand sign only."

Again, Sakura formed the ram seal, and focused on the technique. Again, it was simple enough, and two more clones appeared.

"Now, no hand signs."

This was a bit of a stumper. Without the initial hand sign to get her chakra moving in the right direction, Sakura was not sure how to get started. She focused on calling up her chakra, and then sort of pushed it in the "direction" that felt right. The technique felt a little off from the start, and only one sickly looking clone appeared over her shoulder.

"Hm, we'll have to work on that." Ebisu commented. "You'll be happy to know that conventionally each hand sign you leave off bumps the technique up by one letter rank, with an extra letter bump for performing the technique with no hand signs at all. So really, you've already picked up some B-rank techniques."

Some quick experimentation revealed that Sakura could also perform the transformation technique with only a single hand sign, while the replacement technique took two.

"That's nice, sensei, but I don't see how this is really going to help." She said.

"Well, if you think about it, I'm sure a few things will occur to you." Ebisu commented. He then drew a kunai, and suddenly split into four copies of himself as he leapt towards Sakura. She went to block one copy and felt her arm go right through as his kunai settled against her throat.

"Not completely useless, I think." Ebisu commented. "But I do have a couple of other things I want you to work on. We've gone about as far as we can with your physical training for now, so you'll have time to work on them next week."

Ebisu walked back to the center of the clearing, then turned to face Sakura. "I think you'll recognize this one."

He formed a few hand seals, and sank down into the ground. After a moment, he popped back up into view a few feet from where he had disappeared.

"Hey! Sensei does that!" Sakura said, excited. "You think I can learn it?"

"I don't see why not." Ebisu replied. "You might not have the chakra to go swimming about underground, but you should be able to duck out of the way of anything you can't avoid above ground. There's one other thing I want you to learn for sure."

Ebisu formed a few more hand signs, then gestured for Sakura to throw a kunai his way. She complied, and watched as it was deflected somewhat off course, cleanly missing her teacher.

"That's... nice, I guess." Sakura said.

"Ah, there's a bit more to this than meets the eye." Ebisu explained. "The air wall technique creates a plane of air in front of you, and keeps it still. As you can see it tends to deflect thrown weapons. It also..."

Ebisu trailed off, letting Sakura put it together. After a moment her eyes lit up. "It blocks sound!"

"Exactly." Ebisu said, nodding. "I don't want you taking a scratch from that trick arm thing."

Sakura felt a smile stretch across her face. For the first time she started to think that she might eke out a win against Dosu.

ooOoo 


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura finished forming the hand seals for the "hiding like a mole" technique and carefully focused the resulting energies downward. She felt the technique complete successfully and was rewarded by a sinking sensation... that ended while her entire body above the knees was still above ground.

"At this rate maybe I should just learn to duck faster." Sakura said, dispirited.

"Maybe," Ebisu commented, looking critically at the earth covering her shins. "It looks like you're performing the technique correctly, how much chakra are you putting into it?"

"What do you mean? It feels like the right amount." Sakura replied, puzzled. She wasn't sure how one would go about precisely measuring chakra.

"Ah, that explains it. This technique, like many other elemental techniques, but unlike the academy techniques, takes in a variable amount of chakra." Ebisu explained. "The more chakra you put in, the deeper you go. What you've got there is pretty much the minimum depth."

Sakura performed the technique once more. This time, instead of just feeding the technique chakra until it felt like it would work, she pushed in a pretty healthy chunk of her reserves. She was rewarded with a sudden plummet into previously solid earth.

Sakura took a moment to celebrate her achievement, but then realized that she was stuck in a pit of self-made quicksand. She hadn't taken a particularly deep breath before performing the technique, and she was starting to feel a bit of tightness in her chest. Crouching down against the solid ground beneath her feet, Sakura sprang up as high as she could, supplementing her upward momentum with swimming motions from her arms and legs. After a moment she felt her hand break into the open air, and from there she was able to latch onto the solid ground around her sand pit and drag herself above ground.

Sakura lay on the ground, panting as she attempted to regain her breath. After a moment she saw a shadow fall across her form, and looked up to see the smiling face of her temporary sensei.

"I'd call that a qualified success." Ebisu said. "Since we still have a few days before the tournament, you should have time to learn the technique that lets you create a breathing hole down there."

"That would help." Sakura said, then dragged herself to her feet for the finale of her little demonstration.

Forming the appropriate hand seals, she focused on tracing out a rectangle in the air in front of her and channeled her chakra into her technique. Sakura could feel the air wall click into place, and gave Ebisu a thumbs up. Her teacher pulled out a practice kunai and threw it at her. When it hit the wall Sakura felt a slight tug on her chakra and was gratified to see the flight of the kunai deflect downward. She released the technique with a smile.

"Good." Ebisu commented. "Even a strong sound wave will not impart as much kinetic energy as a thrown weapon."

Sakura finished the demonstration with her hands at her side. A moment of concentration and flex of chakra resulted in a small poof of smoke as she transformed into a perfect copy of Ebisu. Another mental exertion returned her to her original form, and then created a copy of her standing behind each shoulder. She brought her hands together into a single seal and switched places with a log standing on the other side of the clearing, then turned to face Ebisu for his evaluation.

"Not bad. You've picked this up pretty quickly." Ebisu said. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the unqualified praise. "You should keep working on your chakra molding efficiency until you get rid of that smoke effect. Getting past the need for a hand sign for the replacement technique will be a longer term project."

Ebisu walked over to the log that Sakura had used for her demonstration and tossed it over to her. She caught it automatically, unsure what he was planning. "There is one thing that I should demonstrate to you. Set the log down in front of you and close your eyes."

Sakura complied. She felt a pulse of chakra, and then a breeze on her face. She opened her eyes to find Ebisu standing right in front of her. Sakura gave a little exclamation of surprise and jumped backwards.

Ebisu looked at her expectantly. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Sakura asked, then realized what he meant. "Oh, that chakra. What was that?"

"When you perform the substitution technique, the first thing that happens is a bit of chakra goes out to tag your destination." Ebisu explained. "A good ninja will make sure that you receive an unpleasant welcome if you try to use the technique to get close."

Sakura's eyes widened as she realized the implications of what he was saying. She would have to change her battle plans considerably.

"I see you understand." Ebisu commented. He took a few steps away from her, surveying the training ground and apparently gathering his thoughts before turning to address Sakura once more.

"You will be facing Dosu in just five days, and as you have probably noticed we have not yet discussed your strategy." Ebisu said. He waited for Sakura to nod in acknowledgement before continuing. "This was a deliberate choice. As a chuunin you will be given mission objectives and expected to determine how best to accomplish them. If you can't come up with a battle plan without my direction, you don't deserve a promotion.

"However," Ebisu continued, breaking into a smile, "I am confident that you will be successful.

"I'll admit that when I began this assignment, it was because I owed Kakashi a favor." Ebisu said, then removed his sunglasses. Sakura was touched by the sincere look in his brown eyes. "But teaching you has hardly been a chore. You've learned everything I've shown you remarkably quickly, and I'm proud to call you my student."

Sakura blushed and looked at her feet for a moment, before a thought occurred to her. "Sensei, what you've shown me aren't exactly village secrets. Why hasn't Kakashi been teaching me any of this?"

"Ah," Ebisu said, smiling as he put his sunglasses back on. "A good student, but still asking the wrong questions. What you should be asking is: why didn't you learn any of this from Kakashi?"

ooOoo

Sakura was still muttering under her breath about frustrating teachers as she made her way to the hospital for her meeting with Kabuto. She stomped into the reception area but settled down when she saw that he was waiting for her with a friendly smile on his face.

Kabuto led her up to his office, and the two of them sat down to face each other across his desk. At his signal, Sakura held out her hand and concentrated. A small green glow faded into existence on her palm. Sakura felt sweat beading on her forehead as she maintained her focus, looking at Kabuto for his reaction.

"I'm impressed." Kabuto said. "That looks like usable medical chakra. Let's test it out."

Kabuto reached under his desk and pulled out a kunai, which he set down in front of himself and slid across to Sakura. She released the medical chakra and looked at Kabuto, puzzled.

"You want me to..." Sakura said, trailing off.

"Don't cut off a finger or anything," Kabuto said, chuckling. "You ought to be able to heal a normal cut though. Don't worry, I can take care of it if you have a problem."

Sakura picked up the kunai in her right hand, looking down at her other hand contemplatively. She was not thrilled at the idea of cutting herself, but there was no other way to know if the technique would work for her. She brought the blade down and drew it across her palm.

She had to give Kabuto credit, he maintained his equipment well. The kunai was razor sharp, and she hardly felt anything as a line of blood rose up across her palm. Setting down the blade, she focused on generating medical chakra once more. Once her right palm was covered with a soft green glow, she brought her hands together.

It was an odd feeling. She couldn't really feel the chakra working on her left hand-the wound hardly hurt to begin with, and the healing process didn't feel like anything in particular. However, the medical chakra was a different story. There was a sort of feedback through her chakra system as the technique worked that let her know how it was knitting the flesh of her hand back together. After a moment, Kabuto passed her a damp rag. She ended the healing technique and wiped the blood of her hand to reveal an unmarked palm.

"Very impressive." Kabuto said. "That should prove helpful in the exam-and I have to say, once you make chuunin, it would be a crime if you didn't sign up for medical training."

For the second time that day, Sakura found herself blushing at unexpected praise of her abilities as a kunoichi. "Thank you."

They sat in a companionable silence for a moment, until curiosity prompted Sakura to ask if there was anything else she could learn before the exam.

"The next thing for you to work on would be chakra shaping," Kabuto replied. "I don't think it will pay off in time for the exam, but training it shouldn't tire you out or anything."

Kabuto held out his hand to demonstrate. The green glow of medical chakra appeared on his palm once more, but he wasn't done. The chakra gradually pulled together into a ball, then changed shape into a cube, and then a pyramid before Kabuto dismissed the technique. Sakura looked at him quizzically.

"Your chakra control is already very good. Phenomenal really." Kabuto said. "You should be using it for more than just performing basic techniques efficiently."

"That looked difficult," Sakura replied, "but what's the point?"

"A fair question." Kabuto said, sitting back in his chair, light glinting off of his glasses. "Ultimately, the point is to help me realize my dream. Someday I want the medic-nins of Konoha to be regarded on the battlefield with the same level of fear and respect as the Hyuuga clan."

Sakura couldn't hold back a snort of disbelief. The Hyuuga were widely regarded as powerhouses in the field. It was said that the byakugan made them impossible to fool, while the gentle fist technique made them impossible to engage in close quarters combat. Medic-nin, in contrast, largely tried to stay out of fights until it was time to heal their teammates.

"I don't blame you for your reaction." Kabuto said. "But it isn't quite that ridiculous. Tell me, what would happen if I were to channel regular chakra into your arm?"

"My own chakra would expel the foreign chakra, unless it was overwhelmingly powerful." Sakura replied. This was basic chakra theory.

"And if the Hyuuga in your class were to land a gentle fist strike in the same location?"

"I would lose the use of my arm until the tenketsu cleared." Sakura said. She frowned as realization struck.

"I see you recognize the issue. The details are a clan secret, of course, but the Hyuuga have obviously found some way to overcome the body's natural chakra defenses." Kabuto said. "Now, the last question: what would happen if I struck your arm with medical chakra?"

"I... don't know." Sakura said. Kabuto was her only source of information on medical chakra, and he hadn't covered this topic before.

"The distinguishing feature of medical chakra is that it operates in the patient's system without any interference from the patient's own chakra. Once there, medical chakra does what the medic wants it to do." Kabuto answered his own question, steepling his fingers in front of his face. "The ultimate expression of chakra shaping is the chakra scalpel."

Kabuto reached under his desk and removed a paper-wrapped bundle. He unwrapped it to reveal a thick cut of steak, and then re-wrapped it in the butcher paper.

"I will demonstrate using my dinner. As organic material, it will respond well enough to show the utility of the technique." Kabuto lectured.

He extended his hand, and it was once more enveloped in the glow of medical chakra. This time, the chakra shaped itself into the form of a short blade. Kabuto drew the blade across the wrapped parcel, to no apparent effect. He then dismissed the scalpel and unwrapped the steak, showing that it had been neatly cut into two pieces.

"Chakra scalpels are usually used for surgery, but in combat they could easily be used to sever tendons and disable your opponent." Kabuto said, eyes shining with enthusiasm. "The ultimate non-lethal technique, not limited to one clan, but to one village."

"That's amazing!" Sakura said. "How did you ever lose in the chuunin exam?"

"Well," it was Kabuto's turn to blush, "I get a little flustered in combat situations, you know. Also, the scalpels take pretty extreme chakra control... get distracted mid-combat, and suddenly you're just rubbing people with your palms."

"Oh." Sakura replied. She could imagine having your kunai disappear mid-swing would be pretty dangerous.

"Still, I think the potential is there for a good technique, and all you have to do is form your chakra into the blade and will it to cut." Kabuto said. "Learning to shape chakra will pay off in other ways too."

Sakura agreed with him, and decided to set aside some time to work on chakra shaping. After all, what possible downside could htere be to honing her chakra control?

ooOoo

The day of the finals dawned bright and sunny. Sakura woke up early, had a nice tuck in at breakfast, and headed to the arena with a spring in her step. She arrived an hour early. After the chuunin on guard duty allowed her into the competitors' box, she was surprised to see that Shikamaru was the only finalist already present. She debated going over to talk to him-she didn't want to risk giving any information away to a potential opponent, but she doubted the lazy genin would get past Sasuke. She realized her internal debate was moot when she heard a soft snore come from where Shikamaru was leaning against the wall. Apparently whatever had motivated the boy to get here early wasn't enough to keep him awake.

Sakura walked to the railing on the opposite side of the box and looked down at the arena. The field of battle was a circle roughly one hundred yards in diameter. The floor was loosely packed dirt, which Sakura was grateful to see, as it would allow for fairly easy use of her hiding in the dirt technique. She didn't fancy fighting Gaara in that type of environment, but she frankly didn't fancy fighting Gaara anywhere, and she was unlikely to face him in this tournament.

From Sakura's perspective, a portion of the left side of the arena was separated from the rest by a ten foot wide moat, behind which was a miniature forest. The right hand side of the arena had a similar moat, cutting off a boulder garden from the rest of the arena. The majority of the arena was open dirt, but a clever fighter would certainly have the opportunity to maneuver a battle onto favorable terrain.

The competitors' box stood approximately one story above the arena floor. A stairway provided access to the arena floor for anybody who couldn't manage the one story jump. The box itself was large enough to allow all of the competitors to stand side-by-side at the railing and watch the action below. A bar along the back wall was stocked up with water and snacks for the aspiring chuunin-to-be. The door next to the bar granted access to the inner area of the stadium, which was sectioned off so that the competing genin did not have to share access to restrooms and the like with the general public.

The public would be watching the fights from the seats that rose up all around the arena. Sakura knew from her research that the stadium could seat over fifty thousand people. It was one thing to read that number in a report on the stadium, but it was quite another to see it in person. The sweeping rows of seating were empty now, but Sakura could imagine the incredible mass of humanity that would be present to watch the fights. She couldn't help but feel a little nervous at having her performance evaluated by so many people.

Sakura finished surveying the arena and turned to a chakra control exercise to pass the time. Making sure that her hand was hidden from view, she carefully coated her palm in medical chakra, then gathered the resulting chakra into a ball. Past experimentation had shown her that the chakra tended to form into a ball, and that more sophisticated geometric patterns were far more difficult to generate. The end result was a sphere roughly one inch in diameter, floating slightly above her palm. It was a far cry from the elegant chakra scalpels Kabuto had demonstrated for her, and she wasn't sure it would do any more damage than a kunai if she used it as an attack.

Sakura was pulled from her attempts to reshape the ball of chakra into something useful when the door opened to admit another competitor. She dismissed the chakra she had gathered and turned around in time to see Dosu walk through the door. The bandage-wrapped Oto nin smirked and made a beeline in her direction.

"I'm surprised you bothered to show up, little girl." Dosu said with a sneer.

"If I remember correctly," Sakura said, fixing him with a cool look. "You were the one who ran away the last time I saw you."

"Heh," Dosu snorted, "you won't have Sasuke to hide behind this time."

"And you won't have your team with you either." Sakura said. She paused, and then decided to pick at what seemed to be a weak point. "You seem pretty sure of yourself for a guy from a village that's never really done anything."

Dosu snarled and stepped forward, reaching for his kunai holster. He froze after taking a single step.

"You know, you'll get a chance to work out your issues down in the arena pretty soon." Shikamaru spoke from where he was leaning against the wall. "Until then, could you please keep it down so I can get some sleep?"

Looking down, Sakura saw that Shikamaru's shadow was stretched out unnaturally until it made contact with Dosu. It was a reminder of the power of the Nara clan, that even a lazy bastard like Shikamaru could easily disable a powerful ninja if he caught them unawares.

Dosu growled in frustration and nodded at Shikamaru. He relaxed as the shadow bind was released, putting his hands in a non-threatening position. He turned to walk away, before reconsidering and turning to face Sakura.

"He's right, I don't need to fight you now. The one I really want to kill is Sasuke, anyway." Dosu said, giving Sakura a feral grin. "But I think if I kill you first, I'll probably get a better fight out of that Uchiha bastard."

Sakura kept her face impassive and did not respond as Dosu walked over to stand by himself at the other side of the railing. She had expected some mind games before the fighting started, but hearing her opponent speak so casually of killing was still off-putting.

The other competitors gradually trickled in, as did the spectators. The mood in the competitors' box was somber. The ninja had grouped together according to their village and team affiliation, but even ninja who were friends were each other had a hard time making idle chitchat when they would soon be engaged in mortal combat. Sakura suspected that the box was also quiet because Naruto had not yet arrived.

As the time drew near for the exam to begin, a Konoha jounin entered the competitors' box. He was tall and somewhat sickly looking, but his most distinguishing feature was the senbon needle hanging out of his mouth. As he stepped forward to talk, Sakura looked around the box and saw that only Naruto and Sasuke were still missing.

"I'm Gekko Hayate, the proctor for the third exam. It looks like everybody is here who's going to-" he started to explain, only to be interrupted by the door slamming open behind him.

"Hey hey, don't worry, future champion Uzumaki Naruto is here! I-" Naruto announced, before being silenced by a whack to the back of the head from Sakura.

"Naruto! Stop being annoying!" Sakura said.

Naruto grumbled, but eventually subsided. Hayate gave Sakura a grateful nod, before beginning his speech again.

"Ok, you all know the pairings, so I'm not going to bother repeating them. The rules are the same as the rules for the preliminary matches. You can use whatever techniques you like. The match is over when one combatant is dead or unconscious, or I determine they are unable to continue. Remember," he said, pausing to glare at the assembled genin, "once I say the match is over, it's over. Any attack made after the match is over will be severely punished. Any questions?"

There were none, and the proctor nodded. "First match is Nara versus Uchiha. Head down to the arena, we start in five minutes."

"Sasuke isn't here." Shikamaru said, sounding bored. "Does that mean I won't have to fight him?"

The proctor chewed on his senbon for a moment in frustration, before coming to a decision. "Head down there. I need to talk to the Hokage to see what we're going to do."

Shikamaru shrugged, then slouched his way down the stairs to the arena floor. The proctor disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"I can't believe that bastard didn't even show up!" Naruto said to Sakura. "He's probably afraid that I'm going to kick his ass in the finals."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sakura replied. "If he's late, you know it's definitely sensei's fault."

Even Naruto's dislike of Sasuke yielded to the obvious truth in that statement. Still, it was clear that the blonde was disappointed to miss the chance to fight Sasuke, and looking around the competitors' box, Sakura had the sense that he wasn't the only one.

The general audience seemed to be confused by the presence of only one fighter in the arena, judging by what Sakura could hear. After a moment they were quieted when Hayate appeared on the arena floor in a puff of smoke.

"The match between Nara Shikamaru and Uchiha Sasuke has been postponed." He announced. He paused as the crowd groaned. "Accordingly, our first match will be Haruno Sakura versus Kinuta Dosu."

Sakura vaulted over the railing into the arena. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dosu doing the same thing as Shikamaru walked up the stairs back into the box. They stopped near the proctor, standing about thirty feet apart.

"This is a no-holds-barred match." Hayate announced for the benefit of the crowd. "You will continue fighting until you are no longer able, or I call the match. Begin!"

As soon as the command was given, Sakura threw a spread of shuriken at her opponent. She followed in behind the projectiles and with a flex of chakra three copies of herself soon joined in. She figured that Dosu would expect her to retreat and set up traps based on their previous encounter, and she hoped to take him by surprise with an aggressive start. Dosu calmly deflected her shuriken with his armguard as Sakura and her clones moved to flank him.

Once her clones were in position, Sakura had the clone to Dosu's right launch a roundhouse kick. Shortly after that attack begin, she charged in from directly in front of Dosu, aiming to tag him with a straight right. Sakura was surprised when Dosu ignored the attack from her clone, stepping forward and deflecting her punch before retaliating with a strong punch to her stomach.

In addition to the force of impact, the punch carried with it some kind of vibrational force that Sakura felt rattle her bones. She staggered backwards, resisting the urge to collapse forward and cradle her stomach through sheer force of will. She had the presence of mind to form the necessary handseal for the replacement technique without bothering to look up at Dosu, and found herself standing in the forested area of the arena, watching the log she had left behind be blasted into sawdust.

Sakura stepped cautiously into the open area of the arena, but Dosu seemed to be in the mood to taunt rather than press his advantage.

"You think I'd be fooled by a simple clone? I can hear the blood pumping in your veins!" Dosu announced. "You're going to need more than schoolyard tricks to beat me."

Sakura frowned. Dosu was unbelievably arrogant to disclose the basis for his advantage in that way. Although he could always be lying.

Sakura tabled that thought as Dosu brought his arm to bear on her and she performed the air wall technique. She could feel the wall vibrate slightly, but felt no ill effects. It looked like the technique was indeed successful at blocking sound waves.

Sakura kept her face carefully neutral as she thought of a way to test out Dosu's boasts. Her opponent was moving towards her following the failure of his distance attacks, so she was able to safely let the air wall drop. She then reformed the wall in a cylinder around her body. It proved a little trickier than a square wall had been, and Sakura was grateful for her training in chakra shaping. It stood to reason that if the wall kept sound waves out, it could keep them in as well.

Sakura again generated a set of three clones around her and pressed on towards Dosu. This time, Sakura led the way on the first attack. As she had hoped, Dosu ignored her attack, and her roundhouse kick caught him in the face, rocking him back on his heels. Sakura immediately dispelled her clones and generated three more, all four copies of Sakura appearing to leap from the same location.

Dosu was looking around himself wildly, apparently unable to believe the evidence of his ears. It looked like he was saying something, but Sakura was of course unable to hear it. Instead, she directed one of her clones to launch an attack, striking with a kunai. Dosu's move to block the blow left him overextended, and Sakura was able to hit him cleanly with a heel strike to his left knee. The strike brought Dosu with her cylinder of silence, and she heard a satisfying crackle as his knee buckled.

This time, as Dosu fell to the ground he brought his hands together in a seal Sakura didn't recognize. There was an explosion of noise that shattered her defense and sent her flying backwards from her opponent.

Sakura landed in a heap on the ground, her head ringing and her body riddled with aches that had apparently been caused by the vibrations she had been subjected to. She looked up to see that Dosu was also in a bad way, down on one knee in the crater created by his technique.

Deciding to stick with a successful tactic, Sakura again generated a cylinder of silence around herself along with a set of clones, and moved in on the attack. As her first clone moved in to attack, Dosu again set off his explosive technique, dispersing her clones and sending Sakura flying back.

Sakura quickly performed a replacement technique, getting herself back into the forested area. She followed that up by surrounding herself with another wall of air, and then moved across the forest to try to obscure her location from Dosu's senses. Once she felt she had some temporary safety, Sakura leaned back against a tree to assess the situation.

She had rattled Dosu, she knew. He had to be questioning his senses, wondering why his hearing was letting him down. Also, that knee injury was going to seriously hamper his mobility. On the other hand, she had hardly escaped unscathed herself. She had a raging migraine, and a bone deep ache that pervaded the rest of her body. She noticed a trace of wetness on her lip, and a quick touch confirmed that she had a pretty good nosebleed going as well. She had a feeling that one or two more shots of Dosu's technique would put her down for good.

Glancing out in the arena revealed that Dosu was slowly approaching the forest near her original replacement point, but he appeared unwilling to actually enter the wooded area. She assumed their previous encounter had left him a little wary of her trapmaking ability, and that in any event he was unwilling to charge in when he couldn't hear his opponent.

Sakura decided to try and probe for more information and hopefully wear out her opponent. To that end, she created four clones and sent them looping around the forest towards her opponent. When they approached Dosu he sent shuriken at them, successfully dispelling two. The others approached to attack, and rather than set off his explosive attack Dosu engaged them in taijutsu. He did not open himself up to major attacks, instead seeming to be willing to take what would have been glancing blows in exchange for dispelling the clones. Sakura's clones were soon dispelled, and she huffed slightly in disappointment.

She sent out another group of clones, with much the same result.

It was a reminder that Sakura wasn't the only one in this fight who could fight strategically. Dosu wasn't going to just run himself out of chakra blowing away her clones, and her guess was that he was willing to trade a minor strike from her in exchange for landing another solid attack.

The problem was that despite her success so far, Sakura was still closer to incapacitation, both physically and through chakra depletion, than her opponent. The air wall technique was not particularly demanding, but keeping it up constantly while generating clones was beginning to strain her reserves. Also, based on Dosu's taijutsu, even limited as he was by an injury, she would be able to hit him... but only a glancing blow, while in exchange she would face knockout by vibration.

Sakura generated some medical chakra in her right hand and experimentally applied it to her left arm. She didn't want to risk shoving chakra into her brain, but if she could ease the bone-deep ache in her limbs without sacrificing too much chakra, it would be well worth it. Unfortunately the technique had little effect, and Sakura released the chakra with a sigh, lamenting her inability to heal anything other than flesh wounds, and lightly punched the tree behind her in frustration.

Sakura couldn't believe that all of her hard work had left her in a situation where she was going to wash out, unable to hit her opponent hard enough to make a difference. A part of her regretted her decision not to go for the kill when she had had an opening before, but as obnoxious as Dosu was, she didn't exactly want to kill him.

She still was faced with a basic tactical dilemma: in order to hit Dosu hard enough to disable him she would need to take enough of a windup that he would be able to avoid the blow. If she made an all out attack she might be able to get a kunai hit in somewhere vital, but that was chancy, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to follow through with a lethal strike. What she needed was a sneaky attack that would do enough damage to force Dosu to quit.

Sakura smiled as she looked down at her hand and called up a green ball of chakra. She wasn't sure this would work, but she wasn't going to quit without trying everything she could. Sakura dismissed the medical chakra and moved to attack.

Sakura circled around through the woods, and burst out at Dosu along with three more of her clones. He shouted something that was probably insulting, but Sakura was unable to hear him. He also launched shuriken that sent Sakura and her clones dodging in different directions. As they continued closing in on Dosu he kept up the barrage. Sakura was untouched, but one of her clones was not so lucky.

Sakura again let her clone lead the way, swinging an illusionary kunai at her opponent. Dosu turned to take the kunai in his shoulder, keeping Sakura and her remaining clone in his line of vision. Sakura launched a straight palm strike as the first clone dispersed, which Dosu moved to deflect away from his heart while keeping the final clone in view. Sakura adjusted her aim so that her palm struck Dosu lightly on his belly as his arm was about to touch hers.

The instant her hand made contact, Sakura called up medical chakra and formed it into a ball. As it took shape, she focused on her need to cut, to rip, to tear.

The result was horrifying. The sensory feedback from the purposefully directed chakra was much stronger than anything Sakura had experienced in the past. All five senses were conveyed very strongly by the inch thick ball of chakra. It was as if her own fingers were tearing apart Dosu's blood vessels. As if she was personally gnawing through his pancreas and chewing on his intestine. And at the same time it felt as if she was watching the whole thing from close up.

It was almost a relief when Dosu triggered his close in defensive technique, sending Sakura flying away once more. She blacked out for a moment, but came to as she crashed into the ground. Still shocked by what she had done, she paid no attention to Dosu as she stood. The Oto nin charged at her, only to clutch his stomach and collapse in a heap at her feet despite the complete lack of a visible wound.

Sakura was dimly aware of the proctor's announcement of the conclusion of the fight, and the appearance of a team of medics to tend to her opponent. Still in a daze of horror and pain, she made her way slowly off the arena floor and into the competitors' booth. Ignoring the stream of questions coming from Naruto, Sakura continued onward into the bowels of the arena, finally locking herself into the competitors' bathroom.

She managed to make it over to the toilet before she started to vomit. After a moment she thought she was done and straightened up, only to immediately resume the position as she remembered the taste of Dosu's insides. Finally after several iterations she had emptied the contents of her stomach, and after a couple of minutes of dry-heaving she was ready to move on to wash her hands.

Sakura stopped washing her hands when she realized she had scrubbed to the point of drawing blood, and made her way into the hallway. Collapsing onto the bench next to the bathroom, she stared across the way at nothing in particular.

Some time later Sakura realized that her right arm had stopped hurting. Looking down she saw she was being tended to by a medic bearing a familiar mop of grey hair. As she was looking down, Kabuto looked up and met her eyes.

"I'm glad you're starting to come out of it." He said. "I volunteered to help out as a medic at the exams, and it looked like you could use some help."

Kabuto said nothing further as he tended to her injuries. As the physical pain faded, the emotional pain of what had happened seemed to increase, and Sakura was shocked to find herself crying uncontrollably.

Kabuto still said nothing, but did gather her into a gentle embrace and start patting her on the back. Under any other circumstances Sakura would have been upset at the condescencion, but at the moment she was glad of any comfort she could get. After a few minutes she started to regain control of herself, pushing away from Kabuto and explaining what had happened.

"... and I'm never using medical chakra like that again!" Sakura concluded. Even though the situation hadn't changed, she still felt better for having shared her story with somebody else.

"I don't know," Kabuto said, a thoughtful expression on his face, "when you kill somebody you do the same kind of damage whether it's with chakra or a kunai. Maybe it's better to use a technique like that, so you won't take it lightly."

Sakura could see the logic in what he was saying, but didn't think that logic could overcome the sort of visceral revulsion she was feeling. Rather than argue the point, though, she focused on the other implication of what Kabuto had said.

"He's dead then?" She asked. Kabuto nodded, and she looked down at her hands. "I had hoped maybe... I don't know... I feel like a monster."

"You're a ninja." Kabuto responded. "Killing people is unfortunately part of the job."

"Sure, if there's no other choice." Sakura said. "But killing somebody just because they're in your way? That's wrong."

"Sakura." Kabuto said, face serious. "Was there any way you could have beaten Dosu without killing him?"

"No," Sakura replied, "but I could have quit. I wasn't in any danger."

"Sometimes," Kabuto said, still uncharacteristically grave, "the only way to complete a mission is to kill somebody. That doesn't make them a bad person, but as ninja we still have to complete the mission."

Kabuto paused, looking off into the distance. Sakura could tell that he wasn't seeing the walls of the arena.

"They try not to send genin on missions like that." Kabuto continued. "But I've been a genin for a long time, and I've been put in that situation. The chuunin exam is really no different. You heard the proctor say that fights can end in death."

Sakura started to speak, but Kabuto held up a hand to silence her, and fixed her with a grave look. "Sakura, if you're a monster, then I'm a monster too."

Sakura didn't know quite what to say. The show of support was comforting, and with the actual event receding into the past her self loathing was subsiding a bit, allowing her to logically think about the situation. She had known that ninja were killers-Kakashi didn't get the reputation he had by completing peaceful escort missions-but she hadn't thought about what it would mean for her personally. She no longer felt like she should kill herself for the good of the world, but the prospect of going through life with this kind of ache in her soul didn't seem to appealing. Finally she asked the question she was so desperate to have answered.

"How do you live with yourself?"

"Different people do different things." Kabuto responded. "Some people turn to drink, others take up odd hobbies to keep their mind occupied. I think you're familiar with Kakashi's habits."

"So that's what I should do? Just try to forget what happened?" Sakura asked.

"No. No, I don't think so." Kabuto replied. "When you kill somebody, you take everything they have, and everything they were going to have. You've stolen all of their hopes and dreams. I think you have to remember that. You have to remember that you carry that with you, and live your life so that it's worth it."

After a moment, Kabuto cleared his throat self-consciously. "That's what I think, anyway."

Sakura looked at him for a moment, and then closed her eyes. In her head, she pictured a grassy field. In that field she imagined a monument, a square block of granite mounted on a pedestal. The block of granite was smoothly polished on each face, except for a small section on which was carved characters spelling out "Kinuta Dosu."

Sakura felt something inside herself settle into place and she heaved a sigh of relief, feeling like she might be able to continue the chuunin exam after all.

ooOoo 


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura made her way out to the competitors' box and moved to stand near the pair of leaf genin watching the arena. She was a little hurt when Shino and Shikamaru edged away from her a bit farther than strictly required by social etiquette, but soon found herself engrossed in the battle taking place below.

Naruto was bouncing around the arena with a speed that Sakura had never seen out of him before. Apparently, training with a legendary ninja was really paying off for her teammate. Neji was deflecting each incoming attack as it came in, but he seemed hard pressed. It looked to Sakura that Naruto would be able to wear him down if he could keep up his strategy of attacking quickly from all angles.

Naruto suddenly stopped moving and dropped down to the arena floor, staring down his opponent. The intense aggression between the two of them was carried up on the chakra expended during the fight, so much so that Sakura almost recoiled.

"I hear you Hyuuga are hot stuff in close combat!" Naruto shouted. "You'd better be, because I'm ready to get wild!"

With that, Naruto charged forward to engage Neji in a hand to hand battle. Sakura clenched the railing in front of her and wondered what trick Naruto had up his sleeve this time. When Naruto drew near Neji went into a spin, visible chakra emitting from his entire body. For a second Sakura thought she saw a miasma of power surrounding Naruto, but then both combatants were obscured by a massive explosion.

When the smoke from the explosion finally cleared, two craters could be seen in the arena floor. Sakura stared down, trying to catch a glimpse of orange. "Which one is Naruto?"

She gasped when a hand shot up above the arena floor, and Neji came into view as he climbed out of one of the craters. He walked over to the other to look down at his opponent. In the hush that had fallen over the crowd, his next words could be heard clearly across the arena. "For all your tough talk, in the end you are what you always were: a loser."

Neji was thrown backwards when an orange blur exploded out of the floor beneath him. The crowd exploded into applause when Naruto connected with a rising uppercut, knocking Neji backwards. Sakura was surprised to find herself cheering as loud as anybody in the stands at the surprising victory. She could see, but not hear, the proctor call the fight for Naruto. Naruto exchanged some words with the Hyuuga boy before bounding back to the competitors' box.

"Sakura! Did you see that? I totally kicked that stuck up bastard's ass!" Naruto called out as soon as he saw her.

"I saw. I knew you could do it, Naruto." Sakura replied. It was true, after working with Naruto in the field Sakura had tremendous confidence in his ability to win seemingly impossible fights. "You better not think you're done, though."

"No way! Team seven is going all the way to the finals, believe it!" Naruto shouted, raising his hand in a V for victory pose, before stepping closer to Sakura and speaking quietly. "Ne, Sakura, if we're up against each other in the finals you won't use that death touch thing against me, right?"

"Don't be ridiculous," she replied, "I would never use a lethal attack against a teammate."

Naruto gave her a relieved smile and thumbs up before moving up to the railing to secure a view of the arena for the next fight. Sakura stood next to him, suppressing any outward sign of the flash of sadness she felt. When she had moved to whack Naruto on the back of the head after his question, as was her habit when he said something stupid, he had flinched back in slight but genuine fear.

ooOoo

Following a quick forfeit by Temari, who didn't even bother getting into the ring against her brother, Shikamaru and Hayate were alone on the arena floor. The Nara heir's hands were in his pockets and he looked as bored as ever, while the proctor's expression betrayed some irritation as he made an announcement to the crowd.

"In one minute, Uchiha Sasuke will forfeit the match."

Fifty-nine seconds later, as Hayate was stepping forward for a final announcement, there was a puff of smoke and two figures appeared in the arena below. Sasuke looked ready and eager for a fight, while Kakashi looked as calm as usual.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto shouted in unison with the ease of long practice.

"Well, we saw a black cat on the way to the arena and took the long way around to avoid crossing its path. I wouldn't want one of my cute little genin to have bad luck on a day like this." Kakashi said, ruffling Sasuke's hair before hopping up into the stands to sit near the other jounin sensei.

"Fine. If you're both ready," Hayate said, eyeing each fighter. Shikamaru barely looked to be awake, while Sasuke looked ready to kill after Kakashi's announcement. "Begin!"

Sasuke immediately charged forward, sharingan active, but leapt back as he drew close to his opponent. Looking down, Sakura could see Shikamaru's shadow receding back to its normal length. Sasuke sped through a set of hand seals in mid-air, sending a set of small fireballs at his opponent. Shikamaru leaned to the side to let the closest one pass, then deflected the shuriken behind them with his kunai. He dropped the kunai and formed the first two hand symbols for the substitution technique, but was forced to abandon the technique when Sasuke charged forward once more.

The two combatants continued exchanging mid-range attacks, neither able to gain an advantage over the other. Watching Sasuke's movements, Sakura realized he was bounded by two invisible circles. The first was a small circle around Shikamaru into which the Uchiha could not venture without being caught by his opponent's shadow. A larger circle surrounding both fighters represented the distance that Sasuke could retreat while remaining close enough to disrupt any attempt at the substitution technique.

Shikamaru would occasionally begin ambling toward the sides of the arena, where the boulder garden or forest offered cover. Every time that he did, Sasuke would circle around to cut him off and keep him in the center of the arena. None of the long range attacks launched by either fighter was striking home, but Sasuke was effectively keeping Shikamaru pinned down in the center of the arena.

Sakura's eyes widened as she realized what was going on. If Shikamaru reached cover he would be able to hide both himself and his use of his shadow. As long as Shikamaru was in the open, he was vulnerable. At some point the Uchiha had deactivated his sharingan in order to preserve chakra. This was a ninja battle waged at the highest level of strategy, not just a clash of techniques but a battle of time, space, and energy. The slightest mistake could tilt the result in either direction.

"This is boring!" Naruto yelled down at the arena. "Kick that lazy bastard's ass already, Sasuke!"

"Naruto!" Sakura said, smacking him on the back of the head. "Don't distract your teammate!"

A small part of Sakura was reassured when Naruto responded with his usual grumble, and no sign of genuine fear.

Whether because of Naruto's commentary, or just because he felt it was time, Sasuke finally made his move. Forming an extended chain of hand seals, he spat out a much larger fireball than anything he had produced so far. Unlike his other attacks this one moved at no more than a brisk walking pace. It was brighter than Sasuke's usual great fireball technique, but despite its great size Sakura could feel no heat being put out by the technique from where she was standing. Oddly, Sasuke had not aimed directly at Shikamaru, but rather so that the fireball would fly over his head. Shikamaru attempted to move, but a spread of shuriken forced him to step back to his original position.

The purpose of the fireball was revealed when it was directly over Shikamaru's head and Sasuke charged forward to begin a taijutsu assault. With a light source directly overhead Shikamaru had no shadow to rely on and was forced to defend himself in hand-to-hand combat. He was immediately on the defensive, taking a solid shot to the kidneys in the first exchange of blows. Sasuke pressed the assault, and Sakura could see him adjusting his angle of attack to keep Shikamaru squarely underneath the slowly moving fireball.

The second taijutsu exchange proved to be too much for Shikamaru, as he left himself wide open for a brutal uppercut that knocked him back and sent him to his hands and knees. Sasuke charged forward to finish the fight but suddenly froze with his fist inches from connecting with the knockout blow.

The crowd, which had been cheering the dramatic attack by Sasuke, fell silent at this reversal of fortunes. Looking closely, Sakura could see what had happened. Shikamaru had fallen with his hands already together in the rat seal he used when manipulating his shadow. With his body bent over, it created a shadow underneath him despite the light source directly overhead. He had used that meager shadow to catch Sasuke when he had ventured too close in his excitement at finishing the fight.

Shikamaru crawled out from under the fireball, Sasuke shuffling next to him with an awkward gait. When they were far enough away, Shikamaru stood up and assumed the more usual posture for control of his shadow bind. Sasuke mimicked his actions as he cracked his back before speaking.

"Did you really think my taijutsu was that bad?" Shikamaru asked. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice a rook to catch the king."

Shikamaru rubbed his chin, where a bruise was already forming. Next to him, Sasuke mirrored the action. Behind them, Sasuke's fireball attack finally ran its course, detonating harmlessly away from the combatants.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the chakra to see this through." Shikamaru continued, shrugging. Next to him, Sasuke shrugged as well, his indifferent body language contrasting with the furious expression on his face. "I resign."

With that, Shikamaru broke the shadow bind and trudged out of the arena. Once the proctor announced the result, Sasuke followed behind him.

When he returned to the box, Sakura walked over to talk to her teammate.

"Sasuke, I..." she said, flinching when he turned to glare at her. "I was thinking, I'm not feeling too good after the first round. I think I'm just going to forfeit our match."

In truth, although Sakura was a little banged up, she was physically capable of continuing. Mentally it was a different story. The wild events from her first match had driven home the fact that these were real fights with real weapons, and she could easily get hurt or hurt somebody else. Ordinarily Sakura would have thought the she was incapable of hurting Sasuke, but seeing him all but beaten by Shikamaru showed that for all his talents, her teammate was not invincible. She didn't know if she could live with herself if she hurt him badly and cost him the chance to pursue his dreams.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting Sasuke to say, but she definitely didn't expect the furious glare he turned on her.

"I thought after a month of training you might at least be able to put on a good show. Now I'm going to go through with two forfeits?" He said, disdain coloring his voice. "You really are useless."

Sakura saw red. She didn't know if it was the insult, having a nice gesture thrown back in her face, or just the end product of a very trying day, but Sasuke had finally succeeded in working over her last nerve.

"You self centered asshole!" Sakura yelled, surprising herself with her vehemence. "You want a fight? Fine! Get down in the arena, I'm going to beat the bastard out of you!"

"That's more like it." Sasuke actually smiled at her, completely derailing her train of thought, before hopping back over the railing to await their match.

ooOoo

Up in the Kage's box, the Kazekage turned from watching the end of Sasuke's victory over Shikamaru and raised an eyebrow at the Hokage. "Remind me, which one is the rookie genius and which one is the lazy bastard that can't be bothered to show up?"

The Hokage sighed, but said nothing as he signaled for the next match to be announced. It really was a crying shame that Shikamaru wouldn't even try to reach his potential-the only consolation was that his father had been the same way at that age. One of the perks of having held the position of Hokage as long as Hiruzen Sarutobi had managed it was the chance to see multiple generations of shinobi grow up under his watch.

"Sasuke is going to have to step up his game if he's going to get through the next room, let alone beat Gaara," the Kazekage continued.

"You think Sakura is that much of a threat?" Sarutobi asked. One good performance at the chuunin exam didn't change the fact that the girl didn't have the strength to match up with Sasuke, nor did she have a family technique to use as a trump card. Still, the Hokage was never one to turn down the opportunity to hear an outside opinion.

"She was certainly a threat to that Dosu kid." The Kazekage replied. "That was a pretty smooth execution of a lethal technique for an innocent little Konoha genin. It makes me wonder what you're teaching them these days."

The Hokage hid a smile at his counterpart's attempt to fish for information. He actually hadn't been keeping track of what Kakashi was teaching his students, trusting the man's judgment. He knew that over the last month Ebisu had focused on physical training and chakra control, so whatever Sakura had used had been learned before the exam started. During the critical moment the Hokage had been focused on tracking the overall state of the battlefield, and the brief activation of the technique hadn't given him enough time to figure out what it was. He could think of a few that fit the bill, but until he had a chance to meet with Kakashi and discuss what things were appropriate to teach to genin, he couldn't know for sure. However, he was still quite capable of playing the mysterious old man.

"Although we in Konoha prefer peace, the sad fact is that we must be prepared for war." The Hokage said, using a minor fire technique to light his pipe.

"Always the flowerbed hiding the death trap with you Konoha ninja. Out in the desert we have to be a little more straightforward." The Kazekage said, then leaned forward. "Any thug can learn a killing technique, though. Here's what stood out for me: those sound attacks, that arm, those weren't natural. Those Sound guys worked on that Dosu kid to turn him into a fighting machine. And she pretty much took him apart with the academy basics."

"Well, as I always told my students," the Hokage said, closing his eyes as he remembered many days spent trying to pound the lesson home, "a good mastery of the basics, and a sharp mind, will take you a long way."

When Sarutobi opened his eyes and looked at the Kazekage, the man had a far-away look in his eyes, no doubt remembering imparting the same lesson to his students. After a moment he shook his head and resumed their conversation. "Good advice, as is to be expected of the Professor of Konoha. Speaking of your students, though, I wonder, when was the last time you saw a rookie using seal-less basics in the chuunin exam?"

"Let's not get carried away." Sarutobi responded. "I need to see a little bit more than a seal free clone technique before I declare her the next Tsunade."

"Yes, yes, of course. All I'm saying is that Sasuke is going to have his hands full." The Kazekage said, then did a double take when he saw the combatants entering the arena. "Especially if you're making him fight back-to-back matches?"

"He needs to learn that there are consequences for tardiness." The Hokage said, leaning back in his seat and taking a drag from his pipe. "One Hatake Kakashi in my village is quite enough."

ooOoo

Sakura didn't know what to think as she stood in the arena across from Sasuke. She couldn't believe she had yelled at him, or that he had responded with a smile. She knew she should be mad at him for insulting her, but then he seemed happy that she wanted to fight him all out, so she should be glad that he was acknowledging her. But the whole thing might be some kind of mind game on his part. On the other hand, if he was taking the time to try to get into her head, that was itself a kind of compliment...

Sakura forcibly pulled her mind away from trying to understand Sasuke. That was a project she had been working on for years with little success. Right now she had to worry about fighting Sasuke. Now that she was in the arena, she was going to give it her best. Obviously she wasn't going to try to kill him, but he was going to know he had been in a fight.

As soon as the proctor gave the signal to begin, Sakura created three clones. One clone moved to flank Sasuke to his left, while another moved to flank him on his right. The third clone ran directly away from him, while Sakura charged straight for him.

As she had hoped, Sasuke ignored the three copies of Sakura that were attacking him in favor of pursuing the fleeing Sakura. Sakura kept her eyes locked on Sasuke's, ready to abort her plan at the first sign of the sharingan, but his eyes remained their usual obsidian black. After a grueling fight with Shikamaru, Sasuke probably hoped to take care of her with a minimum expenditure of chakra. Sakura carefully kept the smile off of her face, maintaining the slightly vacant expression clones tended to adopt when not consciously directed otherwise.

Just as Sasuke was about to run past her, Sakura brought her arm up and leapt, driving her elbow directly into his nose with the force of their combined momentum. There was an audible snapping sound and Sasuke's head was whipsawed back, leading the rest of his body as he sprawled flat on his back in the dirt. A hush fell over the crowd, and Sakura could distinctly hear Naruto shouting from the spectator box: "Ha, you aren't so pretty no more, bastard!"

Sakura didn't have time to process Naruto's comment before she was swept off of her feet. Sasuke had managed to turn some of his momentum into a sweep kick that connected with both of her ankles. Sakura turned the fall into a back handspring to get some distance, and stood up to find herself staring into a pair of sharingan eyes.

Sakura had only a second to contemplate the unpleasant nature of that experience before Sasuke was on her, launching a right cross that she could barely see. She managed to get her arm in front of the strike to block, but still hissed in pain as the blow connected. She didn't even try to counter-strike, instead backing away in the hopes that she could disengage before Sasuke landed a knockout blow. She managed to get her shin in front of a roundhouse kick that would have shattered her ribs, but she couldn't do anything about Sasuke's follow up move. He shoved her arms apart, and before she could reform any semblance of a guard he landed a vicious palm strike to her sternum.

Sakura had the fleeting thought that this was not the first time Sasuke had made her heart skip a beat, but didn't dwell on it as she used the momentum from his strike to help fuel a giant leap backwards. Turning a backwards flip in mid-air, she pulled a smoke bomb from her equipment pouch and flung it at the ground. As the smoke screen was rising up to give her a bit of cover she began forming hand signs, finishing as her feet hit the ground. She barely slowed down as she sank through the dirt and into some temporary safety underground.

She took advantage of her momentary respite to check herself over for injuries. Her arm and leg were in pain, and probably already forming some nasty bruises, but seemed usable. She was pretty suer that trouble she was having taking a full breath indicated a broken rib, but there was nothing she could do about that. She knew if she got into another hand-to-hand exchange with Sasuke she would be out of the tournament.

She was distracted from her self-evaluation when a sandaled foot broke through the soft sand above. Her first reaction was to wonder what Sasuke was doing charging through a smoke bomb. Her second reaction was to send chakra to the dirt to harden it in place, grab onto the foot with both hands, and twist. There was a popping noise, and then a second foot came stomping down from above, breaking Sasuke out of her grasp. As he leapt away, Sakura decided that it was about time to make herself scarce, and she performed the substitution technique.

Sakura landed in the forest in time to watch Sasuke send a giant fireball into the ground. Despite his bloody nose, Sasuke stood tall and proud as he limped around the arena, glaring in all directions with a look of righteous fury on his face. He looked, Sakura thought, very manly.

With an effort Sakura forced down her desire to evaluate Sasuke's looks and instead focused on evaluating him as a ninja. Despite his ankle injury he was still more than a match for her in a straight up fight. The anger, though, was something she could work with. Sasuke the calm, collected, rookie of the year would take her apart with surgical precision. Sasuke the furious genin,she might be able to beat. With that thought in mind, Sakura leapt into the open arena, making sure to keep her distance from Sasuke.

"You know, Sasuke, I don't think that would have hurt me even if I had stayed in place." She said. "Your techniques look impressive, but it seems like their actual performance is a little lacking."

Sasuke said nothing, apparently content to try to stare holes through her body.

"It's funny, I used to think you were as far above me as the stars in the sky. I had convinced myself that there was no way I could win." Sakura continued. "But I could have killed you twice already. Now I'm starting to wonder if you can beat anybody who fights back."

That got a reaction. Sakura formed the seal for the replacement technique, allowing whatever technique Sasuke was performing to vent its fury on the dirt she used to replace herself. Once underground she was able to slowly move her hands through the earth to perform the hiding like a mole technique and free up some space to work with. That done, Sakura started working on healing the bruises that were already forming on her arms. She figured that she had some breathing space since Sasuke wouldn't know where she had gone to ground, and that in any event none of his fire techniques should be able to hit her while she was underground.

Sakura frowned when she felt a vibration rumbling through the earth. She was just starting to wonder if the sharingan allowed its user to track a substitution technique when a hand wreathed in white light crashed into her hidey-hole like fist of an angry god. Sakura heard a sound like snapping twigs and felt tremendous pain flare up in her collarbone before a blast of electricity mercifully sent her into unconsciousness.

ooOoo

Pain. Pain was the first thing that Sakura became aware of when she awoke. A throbbing pain in her head provided a nice counterpoint to the stabbing pain in her arm. As she lay still an occasional shooting pain made itself known, appearing randomly throughout her body. Distantly remembered training led her to stifle a moan as she opened her eyes and took a look around.

A dirty concrete ceiling loomed overhead. The ceiling was pitched at an angle, starting out at a normal height where it met the wall over her head and stair-stepping up to the other end of the room where it was over two stories high. Turning her head to the sides, Sakura saw four empty beds to her right, while two occupied beds were on her left. The farthest bed was occupied by an unconscious boy that she did not recognize, while the neighboring bed held Neji Hyuuga, a contemplative expression on his face as he considered something lying in his lap. Her line of sight was suddenly interrupted by a familiar face with a blonde mop of hair.

"Sakura, you're awake!" Naruto yelled. "That was awesome, how you nailed that bastard in the face! I always want to sock him right in the mouth, and-"

"Naruto!" Sakura interrupted. "What happened? I don't really remember the end of the fight."

"Oh." Naruto said, as his facial expression and body language became much more subdued. "You remember when Kakashi killed Haku back in Wave? He taught Sasuke that technique."

"What?" Sakura asked, shocked. "How could I still be alive after that?"

"The technique uses lightning chakra to pierce through an opponent's defenses. The bastard said he used it to punch through the earth, then let the lightning go through your body to knock you out." Naruto explained.

"Oh." Sakura said, looking at her hands. On one hand, she had pushed Sasuke into using his new technique. On the other hand, once he did use that technique, she lost right away. She had been working hard, but she still had a long way to go to reach Sasuke's level. She didn't know if reaching his level would be enough to win his love, but she was pretty sure by now that he wasn't interested in anybody he considered useless.

"Kakashi said that it was the sort of move a genius would come up with, but he said it like Iruka used to say the same thing about my pranks." Naruto continued, "I think Sasuke's in trouble. And even if he isn't, I'm totally going to kick his ass after the tournament!"

"No you won't," Sakura replied, sharply.

"But Sakura, he hurt you and-" Naruto said, before she cut him off.

"He acknowledged me as an opponent worth fighting," Sakura said, "and if you want to acknowledge me as a ninja, you should let me fight my own battles. Hiding behind other people is not my ninja way."

"Ok, I understand." Naruto said. His face was almost comically easy to read, and Sakura could see clearly as a wave of understanding followed by concern crossed his mind. "Wait, I can't fight Sasuke at all?"

"Just not for me. You never seem to lack for other reasons to fight with each other." Sakura said, then giggled. "Besides, it's not like you'll be able to beat Sasuke."

"Hey! I'm totally going to-are you ok?" Naruto asked. The reason for his concern was that Sakura had attempted to prop herself into a sitting position with her good hand while he was talking, when she felt a shooting pain in her arm and lost all strength in it, collapsing back onto the bed.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. My arm just gave out on me." Sakura replied. "That was weird."

"Oh! That reminds me! The doctors wanted me to tell you about your injuries." Naruto said, then pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolding it in order to read it to Sakura. "This says you had a compound fracture in your collarbone-that's good, I thought it was broken-electrical... something, catastrophic... hmm, that's not good."

With a huff, Sakura snatched the paper out of his hands and looked it over. Seeing the list of injuries she had been suffering from renewed her gratitude at the ability of Konoha's med nin corps, but the information she was looking for was at the bottom. Apparently she was going to have to wait two weeks to regain use of her arm, and for the next day or so was likely to suffer "periodic weakness" due to the electrical shock she had suffered. Looking at the medical report raised another question.

"Naruto, shouldn't a doctor be telling me this stuff?" Sakura asked.

"They would, but they all left to watch the finals." Naruto replied. "Sasuke is fighting Gaara, so everybody wanted to see."

"The tournament is still going on? Wait, you lost? You look way too healthy for that." Sakura said.

"Well, yeah. I mostly just sent my clones at Gaara." Naruto said, sheepishly. "That sand defense is ridiculous, and totally automatic. Even attacks he didn't see at all were completely blocked. When I ran out of explosive tags I gave up."

"You gave up?" Sakura asked, staring at her teammate in astonishment. "I thought never giving up was part of your ninja way."

"I'll fight to the death to protect my precious people." Naruto said, speaking with a quiet seriousness that Sakura rarely saw out of him. "But for some stupid exam, just to impress a crowd? I'm not going to die for that."

"I guess that makes sense." Sakura said. "So Sasuke beat... who did he fight, anyway?"

"Sasuke beat Shino. That's right, you missed Kankuro against Shino in the first round. It was pretty cool," Naruto said, eyes lighting up, before pointing to the unconscious boy two beds over. "That guy is a puppet user with a bunch of poisons and stuff, but Shino's bugs ate his puppet and then drained all of his chakra. Shino's kind of scary."

Just then there was a roar from the crowd, and a sound like drumbeats started echoing through the room. It took Sakura a moment to realize that the infirmary was located under the stands, and she was hearing the crowd stomp its feet.

"They must really be going at it," Sakura said. "Don't you want to go watch the fight?"

"Well, yeah," Naruto replied, scratching the back of his head. "But I had to make sure you were ok. Ninja who abandon their friends are..."

Naruto cracked his jaw open in a huge yawn, then mumbled a few words before starting to nod off. Sakura found herself tempted to join him in sleep, but something about the feeling seemed artificial to her. She tried bringing her hands together to perform the illusion release technique, and found the drowsiness was gone.

Adrenaline pumped through Sakura's system, dispelling the last traces of sleep from her system. Moving quickly, she was able to sit up and quickly leaned over where Naruto had fallen asleep in his guest chair. She performed the illusion dispel technique on her teammate, then shook him awake.

"Huh? Sakura, what's going on?" Naruto asked, still confused as he was waking up.

"Naruto! Somebody used genjutsu to put us to sleep." Sakura said. "This is bad!"

Further conversation was interrupted as they heard noises coming from outside the infirmary. Sakura heard the wet thunking sound of a kunai sinking into flesh, followed by a thump as something toppled over against the wall outside. She turned to catch Naruto's eye.

"Hide!" Sakura hissed, pulling the boy out of his chair. Not looking to see where he would go, Sakura dropped down to the floor and rolled underneath her bed. It wasn't the greatest hiding place, but it would at least shield her from immediate view by somebody walking in the door. Reaching down, she was comforted to find that underneat her hospital gown she still had the three kunai that she kept strapped to her leg as an emergency reserve. This situation certainly seemed like an emergency.

The infirmary door swung open, and Sakura heard footsteps enter the room. From her vantage point beneath the bed Sakura could see three pairs of sandals striding into the room. Sakura held her breath, hoping that these were Konoha nin coming in to reassure the recuperating patients about what was going on.

"The pink haired girl isn't here." The voice seemed to come from the owner of the sandals immediately in front of Sakura.

"Probably asleep on the john." The response came from one of his companions. "Whatever, our mision is just to retrieve the Kazekage's kid. Killing the Konoha brats is just a bonus. Too bad about that Hyuuga seal or we could pocket some byakugan eyes while we're here."

Sakura tightened her grip on her kunai as her hopes were dashed. Rather than attack right away, she waited for a moment and was rewarded by hearing a war cry as Naruto threw himself into the fray. The enemy ninja who was standing in front of her bed turned away from her to deal with Naruto and what was no doubt a horde of clones.

Sakura crawled out from under the bed, the movement made awkward by her inability to use her left arm. Once she cleared the bed, she saw that the black clad ninja in front of her was indeed currently engaged in a fist fight with two copies of Naruto. Climbing to her feet, Sakura leapt up and brought the back of her kunai down across the back of his head.

The enemy staggered forward, but did not fall. Instead, he swung around to face the source of the unexpected attack. In doing so, he left himself wide open to a follow up strike.

Sakura could picture it in her head: the kunai would enter through the hollow of his throat, a mortal wound even if the kunai was somehow unable to reach up to the brain. She could see the blood flowing from the wound, the glassy eyes on her enemy's corpse, and remembered slicing through Dosu's internal organs. Sakura flinched, unable to bring herself to strike, and the moment of vulnerability passed.

Now Sakura found herself facing an enemy ninja of unknown capacity, fully focused on her and pissed off. She had the use of one arm and a kunai, and apparently a critical lack of a killer instinct. Fortunately, at that moment her opponent was tackled by a small group of Naruto's clones, and was soon knocked out and tied down.

"You ok, Sakura?" One of the Narutos, presumably the original, was looking at her with a concerned expression.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, "just one of those muscle weakness things."

"Oh, ok." Naruto replied, looking somewhat dubious. He looked around the room at the three bound sand ninja. "What do we do now?"

"I'll wake up Neji and have him look around," Sakura replied, walking over to suit action to words.

"Wait, he fell for a genjutsu?" Naruto asked, incredulous. "Doesn't he have super-eyes or something?"

"Yes, but that only lets him see through visual illusions." Sakura replied. "In fact, if he relies on it too much, it might leave him more vulnerable to non-visual illusions. Kai!"

With that, Sakura dispelled the genjutsu on Neji, and then tapped him on the forehead to wake him up. Neji sat up, looked around the room, and simply raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Sakura.

"Somebody put a sleep genjutsu on us, and then these guys came in to kill us and grab that guy." Sakura explained. "Can you take a look around and see what's going on?"

Neji activated the byakugan with a thought, and immediately recoiled backwards as if struck. "There's an all out battle going on in the arena. It looks like Sand and Sound ninja are working together against us."

"Shit!" Sakura exclaimed. She was somewhat amused to see Naruto react with more surprise to her cursing than to the news that their village was under attack. "We need to meet up with our sensei."

"Ne, Sakura, shouldn't you be recuperating?" Naruto asked.

"If the village is under attack, we need to meet up with our team." Sakura replied. "Besides, it's not really safe for the three of us to just hang out here. What if some elite comes in to check on these guys?"

"I'd totally kick his ass, believe it!" Naruto replied. "Still, I guess we should go see if Kakashi needs some help."

"I will accompany to your sensei." Neji said. "Then I will follow my own fate."

ooOoo

With the aid of Neji and his enhanced vision, the three genin were able to make their way through the bowels of the stadium unmolested and enter the stands near Kakashi's location. Sakura had retrieved her usual clothes and gear and raided the infirmary's supplies for some heavy duty painkillers before they set out, so she was feeling pretty good at the moment. Now the only problem was how to attract the elite jounin's attention without provoking a reflexive, lethal, response.

"Hey hey, sensei, team seven reporting for duty!" Naruto called out.

"Yo." Kakashi said, giving them a small wave. "Nice timing, I have a mission for you. A-rank, for the first time since Wave."

"All right! I knew we should come find you." Naruto said, excited. "What do you need us to do?"

"Well, Sasuke got sent off chasing after Gaara." Kakashi replied. "I need you guys to go bring him back. Sakura, you'll be in command."

"Um, sensei, for an A-rank mission shouldn't we take more people?" Sakura asked.

"I'm hoping Neji will be able to go with you." Kakashi said.

"I'm not sure-" Neji began, before he was interrupted by the arrival of his own sensei, the inimitable Maito Gai.

"Yosh! Of course Neji may assist your team in the retrieval of their youthful teammate!" Gai announced, giving a thumbs up. "The arena is no place for genin. Which reminds me, Kakashi, our competition now stands at thirteen enemy nin to ten."

"Maa, using the time that I talk to my genin to run up the score. Pretty sneaky." Kakashi replied. "Anyways, Sakura, you'll go faster with just a four man team."

"Sensei, there are only three of us." Sakura said.

"Right," Kakashi replied, before biting his thumb and slamming it down on the ground. A small dog appeared in a puff of smoke. "Meet the fourth member of your team, Pakkun! He'll be able to lead you right to Sasuke."

"Ok," Sakura said, slightly dubious, then snapped her fingers. "Oh, I almost forgot. Some Sand guys attacked us in the infirmary, we tied them up and left them in supply closet twenty-two after Neji blocked off their chakra.

"C'mon team, let's go!"

ooOoo

The run through the forest started out smoothly. Sakura had a feeling her body would punish her for all of the tree-hopping she was doing at some point, but at the moment she was just happy to be out of the thick of the fighting. If they could catch up with Sasuke before he started brawling with Gaara, they could possibly complete this mission without any mortal peril whatsoever. Of course, just as she was feeling comfortable, Pakkun spoke up.

"We're being followed." The small dog said. "Eight to ten ninja are behind us."

"Neji," Sakura said, turning to her temporary teammate to see that he already had his byakugan activated.

"There are nine sound shinobi behind us." Neji said. "They will take approximately three minutes to reach this location, and if we maintain our current speed they will catch us in ten minutes."

"Damn it!" Sakura said. "Can you see Sasuke?"

They did not want Neji to exhaust himself using the Byakugan to look ahead for Sasuke, but as long as he was looking back she might as well ask him to look forward.

"No." Neji replied.

"Pakkun, can we go any faster?" Sakura asked.

"I'm going as fast as I can." The dog replied.

"Ok," Sakura said, trying to think of a plan. "Naruto, make ten clones and have them keep pace with us."

Sakura had watched enough of Naruto's fights that she was pretty confident he could pop out ten clones without much trouble, and he did. Unfortunately, she also knew that throwing ten clones at nine real ninja would buy them a minute at the most.

"Ne, Sakura, what's the plan?" Naruto asked. "Want me to start sending clones back at those guys?"

"No." Sakura said, shaking her head. "The plan is that I stay back and set an ambush."

"What? Sakura, you're hurt, you shouldn't be taking on a bunch of enemies by yourself!" Naruto replied.

"I won't be by myself, I'll have your clones." Sakura replied, smiling at Naruto, who didn't look mollified. "Look, if Sasuke is fighting Gaara, I'm not going to be able to do anything but cheer you on from the sidelines. But a bunch of sound ninja in our forest? I'll be able to lead them around as long as I want."

"Sakura, I don't know..." Naruto said, concern evident in his voice.

"Naruto, this is a mission. The best way to complete it is for you and Neji to get to Sasuke." Sakura said, pausing for a moment to look Naruto in the eyes. "You have to trust me to carry out my part. Do you trust me?"

"Heh, yeah, of course." Naruto replied.

"Then let me do this." Sakura said. After a moment Naruto nodded, then turned to continue following Pakkun. A few leaps later, Sakura saw a small clearing up ahead and called out to the others. "I'll set up there. You guys keep going."

A moment later Sakura stood in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a small crowd of Narutos. Their team had entered from the west side of the clearing, and the sound ninja would come from that direction as well.

"First things first," Sakura announced. "I want you guys to set up as many traps as you can in the woods south of the clearing. Be back here in one minute and thirty seconds. Lethal traps are fine, but so is anything that will slow them down. I want to see why you were the number one prankster in the ninja academy!"

The clones scurried off to do her bidding, and Sakura snagged one of them by the back of his collar.

"Hold up, I have something special planned for you. Your gear disperses when you die, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, that's how it works." Naruto replied.

"All right, that means no traps for you. You're going to have a special role." Sakura said, pausing for a moment to figure out how to distinguish one clone from another. "I'm going to call you clone number one, ok?"

"Sure thing, boss lady. I'm number one!" The clone said, pumping his fist. Sakura resisted the urge to punch him on the head, not wanting to disperse the clone and reduce her available forces.

The other clones returned to the clearing within the allotted time, as Sakura had been expecting. Naruto could act like a goof a lot of the time, but he did buckle down when it was time to be serious.

"Ok, next up you all need to transform into copies of me, so they can't just pick me off." Sakura announced. The clones all complied. Her eyebrow twitched when she saw that the clones, although reasonably accurate, were all somewhat more generously proportioned at the chest and hips than she was. Still, she was going to have to transform anyways to hide her sling, so with a sigh and a flex of chakra Sakura's appearance altered to match the clones. She stood before them with her left hand appearing to rest casually in her pocket.

"Oh man, we just got the boss in trouble, didn't we?" Clone number one asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"The good news is, it's not your problem." Sakura replied, smiling sweetly at the clones. "Now! Five of you will hide in the woods to the north. Four of you will be in the woods to the east with me. Number one, you'll be here in the clearing."

"What's the plan, boss lady?" Clone number one asked.

"North team is the primary ambush. You'll know when to attack. Try to drive them into the traps and finish them off. East team will be in reserve. If we can't take them out from ambush, the plan is to lead them on a running battle away from our team. Clone number one," Sakura said, pulling her remaining six explosive tags out of her pouch and handing them over, "your job is to hang out in the clearing and then get as much value as possible out of these. You look like me, so try not to act too lame."

ooOoo

The sound ninja arrived about half a minute after her temporary squad had hidden themselves in the forest. Sakura was happy to see eight of the nine pursuers drawn up in front of clone number one down in the clearing. Standard tactical doctrine dictated a more cautious approach in a potential ambush situation, but apparently she was being underestimated. Again.

"You're the delaying force? You really think you can keep us from catching your team?" The apparent leader of the sound nin asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

"No," the clone replied, "I'm the ambush. I'm here to kill you."

The leader laughed out loud at that. "A pink-haired little girl playing at being a ninja is going to kill me? That seems unlikely."

"You know, Dosu said something like that." The clone replied. That quieted the sound ninja. "You knew him? Hand picked by your leader to represent your country in the exams? He was doing so well too, until I killed him."

Sakura was a little concerned that the clone was taking the whole "badass kunoichi" act to an extreme, but she should have known that Naruto was never one for half measures. It seemed that he was at least effective in getting under the skin of his opponents, for all that they tried to play it cool.

"Taking out some genin doesn't really impress me, kid." The Sound ninja said.

"Well, maybe you guys all could have beaten Dosu without breaking a sweat." The clone said. "But I'm thinking probably not."

With that, the clone charged toward the center of the formation. The two ninja directly in her path backed up, while the ninja next to them moved to flank the clone. The sound nin on the outside of the formation moved to attack from behind in case it was needed. Of course, such support wasn't needed, as the clone detonated all six explosive tags simultaneously just before entering hand to hand combat range.

It took a moment for the smoke from the explosion to clear, and Sakura's ears were still ringing as she evaluated the results of the trap. She had never detonated so many explosive tags at once before, and the results were impressive. Three of the sound nin were definitely dead or dying, caught too close to the explosion to survive. Another three were on the ground, the extent of their injuries uncertain, but definitely out of the fight. The remaining two, whether through good instincts or good luck, were on their feet, dazed by the blast but still ready to fight.

Those two didn't stay on their feet for long, as five clones came pouring out of the woods on the north side of the clearing, quickly overwhelming the sound ninja. When they were knocked out the clones started congratulating each other, jumping around in celebration until two of them disappeared in puffs of smoke.

Sakura barely resisted the urge to hide her face in her palms as the final sound ninja jumped into the clearing. Surely Naruto knew how to count to nine?

The final sound ninja seemed to be more competent than the others, as a quick taijutsu exchange with the three remaining clones resulted in two more puffs of smoke, and a single copy of Sakura was left in the clearing. The last clone took one look at the situation and took off to the south, with the sound ninja in hot pursuit. Although sounds of combat continued to ring out from the woods, Sakura was unable to see either combatant for a long moment.

She was feeling pretty good about how the ambush was going so far. Eight members of the pursuing force were out of the action, and she still had at least four clones on her side. The problem was that against a strong opponent the clones could disappear very quickly, leaving her all alone to fight off the remaining enemy ninja with one arm. It was quite possible that the right move here was to withdraw, and try to lead her final opponent on a wild goose chase.

Before she had to make that decision, she heard a throat being cleared behind her. "Hey, boss lady, that last guy is caught up in the traps."

Sakura jumped a little before regaining her composure and turning to face the clone. "Show me."

Sakura didn't know what to say when the clone led her into the woods to see the results of the trap. The final sound ninja was hanging upside down from a tree branch, wrapped up from head to toe in ninja wire, his face wrapped securely in gauze bandages, only his nostrils exposed to the air.

"I don't even want to know how you set this up." Sakura said.

Her upbeat mood vanished as an incredibly oppressive chakra presence arose in the direction that Naruto and Neji had been travelling.

"We have to go help them, now." She ordered the remaining clones. Pulling a roll of ninja wire from her pouch, she tossed it to one of the clones. "Secure the prisoners and stand guard. Everybody else, come with me!"

ooOoo

Sakura had to admit, she was relieved that she didn't arrive at what had obviously been the site of a titanic battle until the battle was over. She was even more relieved to find that Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke were all present and alive, if not exactly in a condition to move under their own power. Fortunately, Sakura had arrived with enough clones to carry all three of them, and the whole group was soon making their way back to Konoha. Sakura wound up running next to the clone carrying Naruto.

"Hey, Sakura, you're ok." Naruto said. He sounded a little punch-drunk, but basically lucid.

"Yes, Naruto, I'm ok." Sakura replied. "Sasuke is ok too, and so is Neji."

"That's good." Naruto said, then smiled. "You know, Gaara was actually an ok guy once you get to know him. Temari, too. She was totally ready to protect her little brother."

"Sure, whatever." Sakura said. "I just hope they don't come back to attack our village."

"No way," Naruto replied, "if they do they know I'll just kick their asses again, believe it!"

"You know what, Naruto?" Sakura said. "I actually kind of do believe it."

ooOoo

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Omake: The Sound of Ultimate Suffering

At Naruto's insistence, the members of Team Seven gathered at Ichiraku's Ramen to commemorate the successful completion of another A-rank mission. All three of them were too hungry for much conversation as the first round of ramen was delivered and consumed with alacrity. Predictably, it was Naruto who broke the silence.

"Hey, Sakura, how did you beat those Sound guys?" He asked. Sasuke looked up as well, curious to hear her answer.

"Well, it was partly their inexperience in forest tactics, partly a little bit of luck... but mostly it was conservation of ninjutsu." Sakura replied. Sasuke grunted and went back to his food, satisfied with her explanation, while Naruto's face scrunched up in puzzlement.

"What, you beat them with chakra control?" He asked.

"No... weren't you in class when Iruka taught us the Laws of Narrative Causality?"

"Yeah, but it was really boring. Ow!" Naruto flinched back as Sakura threw an eraser off his forehead.

"Naruto! This is important. Looks like it's time for another lecture from beautiful genius kunoichi Haruno Sakura!"

Sakura set up an easel and poster on the floor behind her. One side of the poster was occupied by a large stick figure with a crudely drawn forehead protector, while the other side had five small stick figures with forehead protectors. Between them was a "greater than" sign, with the larger end pointing towards the single stick figure.

"Ok!" Sakura exclaimed, pulling out a wooden pointer and pointing at the larger stick figure. "We all know what happens when you fight a single opponent. You get pushed to your limit, almost lose a bunch of times, and to win you have to come up with some brilliant strategy that you can only pull off thanks to a recently learned technique. At the end of the day you've learned something about yourself and maybe changed your opponent's view on life. But what happens when you fight multiple people?"

"You get your butt kicked? Yikes!" Naruto ducked beneath another eraser. "Where are those even coming from? Ow!"

"They appear when you say something stupid. Now, stop answering the rhetorical questions wrong!" Sakura said, before gesturing at the group of stick figures. "Nameless people can only bring a certain level of combat power to a fight. When that power is divided up among more people, some of it is lost, so the group is actually easier to defeat. It's even worse if they're wearing uniforms."

"That's why ANBU never do anything but die heroically." Sasuke chipped in.

"Oh," Naruto said, before his eyes widened in realization. "Is that why I can't beat this bastard no matter how many clones I use?"

"Yes Naruto," Sakura said, shaking her head sadly, "I never had the heart to tell you, but-"

"My favorite technique makes a bunch of mooks!" Naruto cried out in despair.

ooOoo

In a nearby clearing, Shikamaru perked up when he heard an anguished wail echo across the village. Looking around, he quickly determined that it had nothing to do with him, and settled back to watch the clouds float by, along with the little yellow boxes.

ooOoo


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Still alive! I was having a hard time finishing this chapter before I had the next arc worked out in my head. Chapter 4 was revised slightly, no need to re-read.

I really appreciate getting everybody's reviews. If you're looking for Sakura-centric stories, two of the inspirations for this one were Loyalty by A True Radical Dreamer and One Hunded Days by ANowack.

As always, all reviews welcome. I like hearing what works for you, what doesn't work, and why.

ooOoo

Sakura whistled cheerfully as she walked down the hallway, a small stack of books tucked under her good arm. Pausing in front of her destination, she shifted the books to balance on her leg with the ease of long practice before opening the door. Regaining control of the books with her arm, she entered the room and took a seat on the small chair by the door.

"Good morning, Sasuke," she called out, "I'm here to study again."

Sasuke didn't reply, but then Sakura didn't expect him to. Her teammate had been in a coma for the last week. Kakashi, their team leader, had been in a similar coma for ten days. Nobody would tell Sakura exactly what had happened, but she was pretty sure that they had both suffered from the same type of enemy attack. The idea of Sasuke confronting somebody who had incapacitated Kakashi was enough to send a chill down her spine, and she was grateful that he was still alive. The medics were confident that he would wake up, but were not confident in predicting when that would happen. In the meantime, Sakura visited frequently, hoping that her voice provided comfort to Sasuke on some level.

"The reconstruction is coming along pretty well. I talked to Ino yesterday at lunch. She says that the work is hard, but nobody is complaining about that now."

Sakura's team had returned from the mission to retrieve Sasuke in high spirits. After all, it isn't every day you go up against somebody like Gaara and walk away with a victory. They had sobered up quickly when confronted with the destruction that the invasion had caused in the streets of Konoha. Learning of the death of the Third Hokage had ended any impulse to celebrate their success.

"The test yesterday was pretty easy, but that's no reason to slack off."

Sakura had enrolled in the medic training program the day after the invasion at the chuunin exam. Normally the program would only be open to promoted chuunin, but with promotions on hold after the death of the Hokage, all participants in the finals were permitted to enroll. Thanks to Kabuto's encouragement-and the fact that each major milestone passed in the training was paid out as a C-class mission-Sakura had been eager to sign up.

The program began with two weeks of independent study, followed by an evaluation exam. Successfully completing the exam was the first major milestone to cross for the aspiring medic-nin, and allowed for enrollment in the practical training course. That course would provide for supervised training, first on animal patients and then on minor injuries to people. Successful completion of the course would allow Sakura to sign up for shifts (and further training) at the hospital, and would officially qualify her as a field medic. That qualification came with a slight bump in mission pay, but more important to Sakura was the confidence it would give her in treating her teammates on the field. She knew they had been lucky that nobody was seriously hurt in subduing Gaara, and it was unrealistic to expect that luck to hold.

Fortunately for Sakura, while she may not have been a ninja genius like Sasuke or Neji, she could hold her own with anybody in the village when it came to learning facts and theory from books. With her broken collarbone-now expected to take another week to heal thanks to the abuse she had put it under chasing after Sasuke-she was free from any social pressure to participate in rebuilding Konoha, and she had responded by focusing intently on her studies. The test had seemed simple enough, and Sakura was confident that she had passed.

Of course, learning enough to pass an entry exam and learning enough to heal her friends were two totally different things, so she continued her studies during her free time. Today's reading detailed the interaction between chakra use and the ATP cycle, which was pretty dry reading even by Sakura's standards. Taking periodic breaks to tell Sasuke about the day's events helped keep her from burning out.

A few hours later Sakura's concentration was interrupted by a knock on the door. She looked up from her book as the door opened and was surprised when instead of a nurse, her visitor turned out to be Ebisu. Sakura nodded at him in greeting.

"Sakura," Ebisu said, "I thought I might find you here."

Sakura said nothing and simply raised a questioning eyebrow at her former teacher.

"With Kakashi indisposed," he continued, "I thought you could use a little extra training."

"Thank you," Sakura replied, grateful that he had thought of her, "but I have plenty to worry about with my medic-nin training."

"You want to be a medic?" Ebisu asked. "I thought from the effort you put into our training that you wanted to be a front line kunoichi."

"Well, I'd like that." Sakura said. "But I think maybe I'm not cut out for it. I was really upset about killing Dosu, and then later we were attacked by Sand nin in the hospital... I had a perfect opportunity to take one of them out, but I couldn't do it. An academy student could have put a kunai through his neck, but I froze. Naruto had to bail me out.

"I know that to be a shinobi is to walk with death." She continued. "I even ordered some of Naruto's clones to set off explosives that I knew would kill people. But I can't do it myself. What good is a teammate who can't kill the enemy? At least I will be useful if I can heal my teammates."

"Ah, Sakura," Ebisu said, shaking his head, "killing is part of what we do, but it rarely comes naturally. There's a reason genin don't get sent on assassination missions, even the easy ones. Under ordinary circumstances you would never have been put in a combat situation so soon after your first kill."

Ebisu refrained from asking just how Sakura had accomplished her first kill, for which she was grateful. She didn't want to get Kabuto into any trouble for teaching her the makings of a deadly technique. Fortunately, in ninja villages prying into the secrets of somebody else's techniques was considered bad form. Secret clan techniques were the foundation of Konoha, after all.

"It will simply take some time for you to become comfortable with the idea of ending a life. It is a serious thing, and frankly I would be a little worried if you weren't bothered by it." Ebisu continued. "Both of your teammates will have to go through the same process when they are put into the same situation."

"But that's just it!" Sakura replied. "They haven't been in that situation because they are strong enough to win without killing. Even if I do get over this, I'll never be able to fight shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke or Naruto. Both of them went toe-to-toe with Gaara! Maybe it's best if I just stay back and heal them after the fights are over."

Ebisu pinned her with a flat look. "Is that really what you dreamed of doing when you entered the Academy?"

"No," Sakura said, looking down at her hands. "Well, my dream wasn't really ninja-related."

Sakura didn't explain any further, but she did glance over at Sasuke. She felt a blush rising to her cheeks that she wasn't able to completely suppress, and heard Ebisu sigh.

"I don't know Sasuke personally." He said. "But I do know that most men won't really fall for somebody that they don't respect. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn medical techniques, but if you stop trying to improve as a fighter, stop trying to contribute on the front lines, well..."

Ebisu didn't have to finish the thought. Sakura knew Sasuke well enough to know that he respected strength above all else.

"But how can I get strong enough for Sasuke to respect me?" Sakura asked. "Last time he beat me as soon as he got serious, and that was after I got some lucky shots in. If he uses the Sharingan and goes all out, I'd be lucky to last ten seconds."

"That," Ebisu said, and smiled, "is what teachers are for."

ooOoo

"... and that concludes today's lesson on the influence of chakra use on blood clotting." The medical instructor set down the piece of chalk he had been using to diagram chakra flows on the board. "Now we will have a period of self-study. The aquarium at the back is available for those of you who are ready to practice the Mystical Palm technique."

Sakura set down the pencil she had been using to take notes and flexed her fingers a few times to work out the cramps. Standing, she made her way to the back of the room where a stack of buckets stood in front of a pool of water filled with the fish that were soon to be the subject of the students' practice. Sakura had read that medics could use medical chakra to keep fish alive out of water, and was eager to try it out for herself. She was startled out of her thoughts by a tap on her shoulder, looking up to meet the instructor's eyes.

"Sakura," he said, not unkindly, "don't feel you need to rush ahead to practice with the fish until you are comfortable performing the technique on your own."

Sakura held out her hand, palm up. A moment of concentration later, her palm was enveloped in the green glow of medical chakra. She raised an eyebrow as she dismissed the technique, the question implicit.

"That," he stammered slightly, "that is sufficient. Where did you learn that technique?"

"Oh," Sakura blushed slightly, embarassed that her need to impress the teacher had overridden her desire to keep Kabuto out of trouble. "I read ahead in the book and tried out the chakra control exercises. It wasn't too hard."

Sakura had in fact read about the Mystical Palm technique in her studies. It used a series of hand seals to help focus chakra in the palm and provided some assistance in forming medical chakra. Her training with Kabuto had skipped the technique, both because he felt she could handle it and because the hand seals were impractical for use in close combat.

"Well," he replied, raising an eyebrow skeptically, "I'm glad that went well, but I would suggest you don't try the practical exercises without supervision."

Sakura accepted the chastisement without complaint, and took a bucket containing her fish back to her desk. After taking a moment to gather her thoughts and collect medical chakra in her palm, she plunged her hand into the water, took hold of the fish, and pulled it out into the air.

It was a fascinating experience. Since she was making no attempt to shape the medical chakra, it was free to seep into the fish she was holding. As it flowed along the fish's rudimentary chakra system, Sakura was able to sense that the fish was perfectly healthy-and starting to suffer from a lack of usable oxygen.

Sakura directed her chakra into the fish's gills and focused on her desire to heal the fish. A moment passed, and the only noticeable change in the fish's condition was that it was gasping more desperately for air. Sakura narrowed her eyes in concentration as she pushed more effort into insisting that the gills heal. This had no effect, and Sakura was soon treated to the unsettling feeling of the death of a patient in the midst of an active healing technique.

"Damn it," Sakura muttered under her breath, examining the body of the fish. She could see that her efforts had resulted in the generation of new flaps of skin covering over the gills in an effort to "heal" the fish.

"Ah, Sakura," the instructor commented, getting the attention of the class. "Welcome to the fisherman's club."

With that, the instructor wheeled out a blackboard that Sakura had not previously noticed. Across the top of the board was a picture of a fish with an "x" in place of its eyes, while the side of the board was occupied by a column of names. The instructor wrote Sakura's name at the bottom of the column, and then made a tick mark next to it. Looking at the other names, Sakura could see that each had between five and twenty marks next to it.

With his record-keeping task done, the instructor walked over to Sakura. He took her fish and tossed it across the room into a barrel labeled "dinner," then leaned forward to speak with her. "Don't worry, it happens to everybody. I would take a minute to think about what happened before trying again."

Sakura frowned as she took her bucket back to retrieve another fish. It was clear that just shoving medical chakra at the problem was not going to be enough. The problem was that she just didn't know enough about how fish breathe. All of the medical diagrams she had been studying were about humans-it seemed a little odd that they proved their competence by working on fish of all things.

Well, if the problem was a lack of knowledge, she could work on that. Sakura reached down into the bucket and took hold of the fish once more, but this time she did not withdraw the fish right away. Rather, she held it in place while her medical chakra infiltrated its system, giving her a mental picture of a healthy fish. Focusing on the gills, she could sense hundreds of tiny filaments carrying oxygen-depleted blood that interacted with the water flowing through the fish's mouth, extracting oxygen before the water was expelled out through the gills.

Keeping her focus on the fish's respiratory system, Sakura lifted the fish out of the water. Immediately she felt the internal structure of the gills collapse, no longer supported by the water. Sakura carefully directed her chakra to support their weight, but the fish still seemed to be struggling. Focusing further in on the details of the system, Sakura could sense that the filaments inside the gill were sticking to each other. She did the best she could to use her chakra to spread them out and allow each filament to extract oxygen from the air. It was a difficult bit of chakra control, but much easier than trying to shape unsupported medical chakra into a similar shape would have been.

After a moment, the fish stopped struggling, and Sakura noted with relief that it was successfully pulling oxygen from the air. The gills didn't seem to be operating at peak efficiency, but the air was so much more oxygen-rich than the water that the fish was ok. Once she was sure it was stable, she raised her hand to get the instructor's attention.

Sakura smiled at the look of surprise on his face when he saw her success. It was nice to find a field of study that came easily to her.

ooOoo

One week later, Sakura stood before Ebisu at their usual training ground. She had just been given a clean bill of health at the hospital and had full use of both arms, although her left arm was still a little weak. Ebisu assumed what she privately thought of as his lecture pose before speaking.

"As you probably realize, the primary obstacle keeping you from fighting on the level of your teammates is your chakra capacity." He said. "You can try to make up for the disparity through chakra efficiency and clever use of techniques, but the bottom line is that when your opponent can use an A or B ranked technique for every D or E rank technique you can throw out there, you're probably going to lose."

Sakura nodded. She had thought about her match up with Sasuke since the chuunin exam. Besides the obvious advantage of his Sharingan, the other problem she couldn't really think of a way around was the fact that he only had to connect once to take her out of the fight. She might have a similar capacity with her bastardized chakra scalpels, but that would require that she land a clean hit on him in taijutsu, as well as a willingness to kill. Sasuke's mastery of the grand fireball technique and the Chidori gave him an overwhelming advantage. Although she hadn't had a chance to spar with Naruto since the exams, she suspected his use of shadow clones-not to mention his summons-would have a similar effect.

"This is not so much because you are weak," Ebisu continued, "as it is that your teammates are strong. Most chuunin, if they were to attempt to perform the Chidori or shadow clone techniques, would die of chakra exhaustion before accomplishing anything."

Sakura flinched, mentally abandoning the idle thought she had devoted towards talking Naruto into sharing his signature technique. "So what do I do?"

"Although hard work and exercise can increase your chakra capacity, at this point you will no longer enjoy any rapid changes in that area. Fortunately, mastery of elemental chakra can act as something of a force multiplier." Ebisu replied. "I didn't have you work on it before the exam because I didn't think you would be able to master it in time. Of course, that was before I heard you learned how to mold medical chakra in two weeks."

"You heard about that?" Sakura asked.

"Of course. I think by now the medical trainers have told the whole village about Sakura 'One Fish' Haruno."

"Sensei, please!" Sakura choked out, torn between embarassment at the praise and anger at the stupid nickname.

Sakura had flown through her medical training over the course of the last week. Medical techniques, at least at the introductory level, required two things: chakra control, and an idea of what to do with your chakra. Before the chuunin exams, Sakura had not considered herself particularly good at chakra control, for the same reason that most people didn't consider themselves good at breathing. Her chakra just did what she wanted it to do, and that was that. Her attempts at making chakra scalpels were the first time she had failed to perform a technique because her control wasn't good enough. However, the control requirements for the basic medical course were much more forgiving, and Sakura had been able to keep her "patients" alive while out of the water and healing various injuries over the past week, never losing another fish.

The praise her performance had generated left Sakura with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was nice to be hailed as some kind of ninja genius. She had been praised for her classroom performance before, but this was the first time she was able to generate practical results ahead of her peers. On the other hand, she felt a little bad accepting praise for a performance that was the result of her secret head start in training. She also felt a little uncomfortable with the assumption, common to all of her medical instructors, that she would seek a posting in the hospital as soon as possible. Even if she was good at medical techniques, Sakura still wanted to be out in the field with her team.

"Don't worry, most ninja don't get a cool nickname right out of the gate." Ebisu said, smiling at her. "Now, what do you know about elemental chakra?"

"I know you have to use it to perform high level techniques like the Water Dragon." Sakura said, then paused in thought for a moment. "I think the Chidori is an elemental technique as well."

"That is true, but incomplete." Ebisu replied. "In order for any technique to affect an element or generate an element, it must use elemental chakra."

"But, then... how can I perform the hiding like a mole technique when I can't generate earth chakra?" Sakura asked.

"Good question." Ebisu said. "The answer, not to get too technical on you, is that elemental techniques like that incorporate a two step process invoked by the hand seals that you use. The first stage converts the chakra you feed the technique into elemental chakra, while the second stage applies the elemental chakra to produce the effect that you want. Of course, the "second stage" could actually incorporate many other stages as well."

"So why learn to produce elemental chakra, if the technique does it for you?" Sakura asked.

"Ah, this is the crux of the matter." He said. "Just as a beginning ninja wastes physical and mental energy when producing chakra, techniques that generate their own elemental chakra waste chakra in the process. The wasted chakra greatly increases the cost of a technique, making the high level techniques completely impossible without generating your own elemental chakra."

"And Sasuke has already learned how to do this?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm, after a fashion." Ebisu replied. "You may not have noticed, but there was a sort of oppressive feeling in the air when he was preparing the technique. That was caused by wasted chakra. I would guess that he is still wasting several times more chakra than he is converting. A proficient ninja will waste almost no chakra whatsoever.

"To begin, channel chakra into this paper." Ebisu instructed.

Sakura took the small piece of paper he was holding out to her, and channeled a small amount of chakra into it. Shortly after she began, the paper crumbled away and drifted off in the breeze.

"That indicates that you are aligned with earth natured chakra. You will be able to learn other elements, but earth will come to you most easily." Ebisu explained. "This simplifies things, since you already know an earth-based technique.

"The next step is simple, but difficult. You need to perform the hiding in the mole technique, and do your best to sense the chakra shifting into earth-natured chakra." Ebisu continued. "Once you've done that, work on performing the shift on your own."

Sakura obliged, forming the appropriate hand seals and channeling the minimum amount of chakra necessary into the technique. She felt the faintest hint of some kind of shift at the edge of her senses, and then she was buried up to her knees in the dirt.

"Yikes, this is hard," she commented. "I think I felt something, maybe."

"This isn't the kind of thing you get right the first time, unfortunately. The good news is that no fish die while you practice." Ebisu said. "Maybe it will help to have a little incentive."

With that, Ebisu formed a string of hand seals before slapping his hand down on the ground. From the point where he had touched the dirt a head appeared, followed by the rest of the body as a duplicate of Ebisu appeared from beneath the dirt.

"This is an earth clone." Ebisu said. "Not as smart or as independent as a shadow clone, but it doesn't take as much chakra either. If you feed some extra chakra in when you create it, it can perform some basic techniques. As an added bonus, maintaining a chakra connection to the clone through the earth will allow you to see out of the clone's eyes and control its actions."

Sakura's eyes widened. The hiding in the mole technique was useful, but it had the major drawback of leaving her completely blind to the situation up above. Even setting aside the combat uses of the earth clones, having one as a spotter would be invaluable. Ebisu chuckled at her reaction.

"Yes, they are quite handy," he said. "But don't get too excited-if you tried to make one right now you would use up nearly all of your chakra. Once you've made enough progress generating earth natured chakra that you can actually use an earth clone in combat, I'll show you the ins and outs of the technique."

ooOoo

Sakura spent the next week in a blur of training, medical and otherwise. She still made time to stop by and talk to Sasuke periodically, a task made easier when she graduated from the animal-based portion of the medical training program and had the chance to shadow a working med-nin at the hospital, receiving personal guidance on healing humans. She was pleasantly surprised when she showed up at the hospital and was greeted by Kabuto, who had been assigned as her advisor.

Following him around the hospital proved a great learning experience, and not just in terms of medical techniques. Sakura could see how Kabuto's kind and reassuring bedside manner set patients at ease and helped the healing process work. It was impressive to watch-and, Sakura admitted to herself, a little attractive. Of course, Kabuto was too old for her to take a serious interest in, and she knew she was destined to be with Sasuke anyways. But still, it was nice to have an assigned mentor that was easy on the eyes.

Sakura was discussing a recent case with Kabuto when a buzz swept through the hospital. It wasn't clear exactly what was going on, but Sakura heard enough to understand that it involved Sasuke. Kabuto shared her interest in Sasuke's health-although his interest was rather more clinical than hers-and followed along as she raced down the corridor to Sasuke's room.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the strange sight of a young, busty blonde hovering over Sasuke's bedside with the demeanor of a seasoned med-nin. Standing behind her was a slender black-haired woman who appeared to be her assistant. Neither woman looked to be a day over twenty-five.

"He's in a bad way, but it's nothing I can't handle." The blonde said, then turned to look around the room. "We're going to need to clear the area for the operation."

The black-haired woman addressed the crowd. "You heard Lady Tsunade! Everybody who isn't going to be assisting in the operation, please wait in the next room."

Sakura was shocked. The legendary medic Tsunade had been absent from the village for Sakura's entire life, but her exploits were well-known. If anybody could fix the strange malady that had befallen Sasuke, it would be her. To have her suddenly appear in this hour of need... it was like something out of a story book. The only way things could be better would be for Sasuke to recover and declare his eternal love for her.

While Sakura had fallen silent, Kabuto stepped forward to address the legend. "Lady Tsunade, may I stay to observe the operation? I was asked to study possible courses of action in case you should prove unavailable, and I would like to compare them to your approach."

"Hm." Tsunade said, folding her arms across her chest. "And what were you planning to do?"

"I believed that a modified form of the Hishikawa procedure would be the best approach." Kabuto replied.

"With a Sharingan victim?" Tsunade said, shaking her head. "That would-"

"Of course, I planned to block off nerve signals to the brain, and then restore feeling by using the Ugaki method on one tenketsu point at a time." Kabuto interrupted. "With a full team on standby to handle any incidental nerve damage."

"Not bad thinking, for a chuunin. He probably would have survived, but he hardly would have been in shape to be a ninja after that." Tsunade said. "Why don't you stick around and see how an expert handles this situation? Everybody else, out!"

Sakura heard Kabuto correcting Tsunade's assumption regarding his rank, but paid little attention, floating as she was on a cloud of hope produced by the fact that Sasuke was being looked after by the greatest medic in the Elemental Countries.

ooOoo

Several days later, Sakura stood next to Sasuke in the office of the Hokage, along with Naruto, Shino, Neji, and Shikamaru. Sasuke's recovery had been amazingly complete, marred in Sakura's mind only by his failure to realize that she and he were destined to be together. The participants in the chuunin exam were now gathered to hear the judgment of Tsunade, the new Hokage. Their jounin teachers stood behind them, formally dressed for the occasion. Kakashi had even put away his reading material for the evening.

"Let me begin by congratulating you all on making it to the final round of the chuunin exam." Tsunade said. "The strong performance that you showed in the first two rounds of the competition are a testament to the fact that the Will of Fire has only strengthened since I last set foot in the village.

"That said," she continued, "your promotion chances depend not only on reaching the finals, but also on your performance once there. I have reviewed your files and spoken with the official observers of the exam, but the final decision in each case was mine alone. Shikamaru Nara, I will begin with you. Please step forward."

Shikamaru took a step forward, immediately becoming the focus of attention in the room. He carried himself in his habitual slouch, but his sharp gaze made it clear that he was paying close attention to what was going on.

"It is clear to me that you have the intelligence to be a chuunin. Unfortunately, intelligence alone is not enough. In your fight with Sasuke Uchiha, you never took the initiative, instead attempting to react to your opponent's moves." Tsunade said, leaning forward to emphasize her next statement. "In a true fight, you would have died. It was only the artificial rules of the exam that extended the fight and gave you an opportunity to exploit.

"If you want to spend your time looking at clouds instead of training you may never reach your full potential, but that's your business." Tsunade continued. "The problem is that if you bring that same lazy attitude to strategic and tactical planning, you could get yourself hurt, and worse, put your teammates in danger. I cannot endorse your promotion. I suggest that you meditate on the Will of Fire and consider where you want to go as a ninja."

Shikamaru accepted her decision with a nod, stepping back into line with the other candidates. Sakura envied his poise as she worried about her own promotion chances. She didn't think she could handle a dressing down from the Hokage with such equanamity.

"Neji Hyuuga, you are next. Please step forward." Tsunade said.

Neji stepped forward with the same grace that accompanied his every movement and stood before the Hokage, his face a neutral mask.

"You are one of the strongest fighters among the chuunin hopefuls, and probably the single most well-rounded candidate." Tsunade said. "Unfortunately, your fatalistic attitude is holding you back. More importantly, I fear it will prevent you from being an effective leader. No Konoha ninja will die under my command because their field commander decided that their death was the will of fate. I cannot endorse your promotion at this time."

Neji remained stoic as he stepped back, and Sakura felt her heart rate jump as she was called forward.

"Sakura Haruno, you are probably the weakest fighter in this room." Tsunade said. "Your chakra control is remarkable for your age, but your chakra capacity is below average and your ninjutsu repertoire is very limited."

"However," Tsunade continued, "you were able to manipulate the battles you were in to play to your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. In addition, while you did not hesitate to use potentially lethal force when necessary, you were not reckless with such attacks. Considering your tactical acumen and good judgment, I am pleased to award you with a promotion to chuunin."

It was all Sakura could do to restrain a whoop of joy, instead limiting herself to a cheerful nod as she stepped back into line. Tsunade's initial comments had echoed her criticism of her own performance, and she had already started to wonder how she might do better at the next exam. To hear genuine praise from the Hokage, followed by a promotion, it was a dream come true. Sakura was on such an emotional high that she didn't even hear Tsunade's speech to Shino, other than to note that he was promoted as well. Sakura started paying full attention again when Naruto was called forward.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Tsunade said, then shook her head. "I don't even know what to say."

"Just say I'm way too awesome to be a genin and promote me!" Naruto yelled. Sakura only restrained her immediate impulse to discipline her unruly teammate when she saw Tsunade react with a chuckle.

"Your chakra control is all over the place, your tactical decisions are sometimes brilliant but sometimes stupid-and sometimes stupid and brilliant at the same time." Tsunade said. "I see why your sensei calls you Konoha's number one most surprising ninja. Before I tell you my decision, I want to ask you a question: why did you concede your match against Gaara? We know from what happened during the invasion that you could have fought him."

"Gaara, he's dangerous." Naruto said, uncharacteristically somber. "To fight him all out, in order to beat him... somebody probably would have died."

Naruto paused, then grinned sheepishly. "Also, I don't think the boss toad would have helped me out if I was just fighting to get promoted."

"Ok." Tsunade said. "Naruto, you have a tremendous amount of chakra. If this exam were about power alone, your promotion would be assured. What is important to me, however, is that you were able to use this power as part of an effective strategy, and you used it with appropriate restraint. These are the traits of a good leader, and I am happy to announce your promotion to chuunin."

"Yes! I did it! One more step towards taking your hat, grandma! Ow!" Naruto stopped leaping around in celebration and stepped back into line after Tsunade bounced a paperweight off of his forehead. Sasuke stepped forward as the last genin to be judged.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Tsunade said, "you reached the final match of the tournament, and may well have prevailed if not for the invasion of Konoha. You prevailed against opponents with different fighting styles, and different family techniques. You were able to modify an assassination technique on the fly into a non-lethal technique for use in defeating a teammate. You persevered through adversity with a relentless will to succeed. In every way, you embody the qualities that I look for in a shinobi. It is my pleasure to announce your promotion to the status of a chuunin of Konoha."

Sakura felt a warm glow in her chest at the announcement. Team Seven had been through so much together, and now had been promoted together. Who knew what great adventure was coming next?

ooOoo

Kakashi met them the next day at their usual training grounds. He was only half an hour late, but Sakura found that working with punctual instructors for the last two months had eroded her hard-won indifference to Kakashi's tardiness.

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto chorused in unison.

"Sorry, I was out late celebrating your promotion and slept in." Kakashi replied.

Any resentment at his late arrival dissipated with the reminder of their recent achievement. Predictably, Naruto was the first to recover.

"So, now that we're chuunin, do we finally get those awesome save-the-princess type missions? I'm totally ready to save the day!" Naruto said, bouncing on his feet with energy.

"Actually, I'm here to take you to your mission right now." Kakashi replied.

"Sweet! Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed.

As Kakashi lead them through the streets of Konoha, Naruto kept racing ahead and circling back, not unlike an eager puppy. Sasuke trailed along behind their teacher at a reasonable distance, and Sakura walked next to him, though not so close as to intrude on his personal space.

Kakashi took them away from the Hokage tower, towards a section of town that Sakura was unfamiliar with. As far as she knew, chuunin picked up missions at the mission desk like genin did, so Kakashi must have picked up the mission scroll on their behalf. They weren't walking towards the gates, so the mission couldn't have them leaving Konoha-in any event, they would have been given a warning and time to pack before going on a long distance mission. Sakura's speculation as to the nature of the mission came to a halt when Kakashi lead them to a stairway set into the wall surrounding the city. At the top of the stairs was a small lookout station.

"Your first mission as chuunin is to keep a watch on the wall." Kakashi said. "If anybody attacks from this direction, use the radio in the guard station to report in."

"What!" Naruto shouted, "This is totally lame! Come on, we should get the good missions now."

"Naruto," Kakashi said, fixing him with a serious look, "this is important. We were attacked by two ninja villages. Until those conflicts are resolved, these watch posts have to be manned. By taking it over, you free up a more experienced team for other missions."

"Whatever," Naruto grumbled, but dutifully made his way to the stairs.

"Good." Kakashi said. "Now, I have places to go and people to kill, so you guys will be handling this on your own. Your relief should arrive in eight hours or so."

With that, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura followed her teammates up the stairs to the watch station. The view of the surrounding forest from the top of the wall was quite pretty, but as a lookout her focus was supposed to be on the cleared area surrounding the walls of the city. Sakura had never really enjoyed keeping watch in the past when Team Seven was out in the field, but hoped that the company would make it more bearable.

The three newly promoted chuunin kept watch in a companionable silence for about half an hour before Naruto struck up a conversation with Sakura.

"Ne, Sakura, do you want to hear how I convinced the old hag to come back to Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto! Be more respectful." Sakura said, slapping him on the back of the head. "But, I would like to hear."

It was widely known throughout the village that Naruto and Jiraiya had found Tsunade and persuaded her to become the Fifth Hokage, but the details were shrouded in mystery and subject to wild speculation. Sakura didn't want to pass up a chance to hear the story from the horse's mouth, although she knew she would have to discount Naruto's more extreme exaggerations.

Naruto did not disappoint, weaving a tale of an epic journey from gambling hall to gambling hall across Fire Country. He described bizarre training regimens, confrontation with legendary ninja, and his own bet with the future Hokage.

"... and then she said 'Wow, the Rasengan! That's way more powerful than that stupid Chidori technique. Please, take my incredibly value necklace!'" Naruto said, when Sasuke interrupted.

"Tsch, why would she say that? Was she even in Konoha when Kakashi invented the Chidori?" Sasuke said. "Idiot."

"Hey! She said it because it's true!" Naruto replied.

"Naruto, you went on a really neat mission. You don't need to exaggerate things to impress us." Sakura said, trying to settle things down with her teammates.

"If you're going to make up a lie, at least make it believable." Sasuke said, unwilling to let things lie. "No way did a loser like you learn such a powerful technique so quickly."

"I'll prove it to you! Let's go find out which technique is stronger!" Naruto exclaimed.

"We're on duty, we can't mess around." Sasuke said.

"We'll still be here, it'll be like we're just scouting out the forest." Naruto replied. "What's the matter, afraid to test yourself against me?"

"Fine." Sasuke said.

Both boys made their way down the wall and over to the edge of the clearing near the forest. Sakura looked on in horror, unable to arrest the crazy momentum Naruto could generate, momentum that was carrying their team for a disastrous outcome. Fighting on duty was strictly prohibited, and in some cases punishable by death. Not only that, but testing out powerful techniques by crashing them into each other, as her teammates seemed intent on doing, was incredibly dangerous.

Naruto didn't take his eyes off of Sasuke as he summoned a shadow clone and began molding chakra in his hand with the help of his clone. In the meantime, Sasuke stood with his Sharingan active as visible chakra began to collect on his hand and wrist. Sakura could feel a horrible pressure in the air as both boys completed their techniques and charged at each other simultaneously.

Just before the two were about to collide, a blur shot across the clearing and diverted their attacks. When the motion halted, Sakura saw Kakashi standing between the boys with a grip on each arm, having diverted the attacks into neighboring trees. Sasuke's arm was buried up to the elbow in the tree, while Naruto's hand had stopped after stripping off the bark.

There was silence in the clearing for a moment until the tree Naruto had struck fell away from him with a tremendous crash, revealing the fact that Naruto's technique had carved out a huge portion of the tree on the opposite side from where he stood. The noise did not divert Kakashi's attention at all, as he stared at his students with disappointment.

"I'm glad I stuck around for a while to keep an eye on you guys. Naruto, go back to the wall and serve the rest of your shift with Sakura. I will be speaking with you tonight." Kakashi said, before turning to his other student. "Sasuke and I will be having a discussion about the appropriate use of assassination techniques."

ooOoo

Sasuke Uchiha was having a bad week. It had started well enough, with his promotion to chuunin, but everything had gone downhill from there. First he discovered that while he was in the hospital his idiotic teammate had somehow mastered a technique that surpassed the destructive power of the Chidori. Then, after his effort to test the true potential of his technique, he had received a royal dressing down from his team leader. To cap things off, a group of four psycopaths from Sound had showed up to "invite" him to join their master Orochimaru. As an added bonus, they decided to deliver that invitation in the form of a beating.

The night after his meeting with the Sound Four, Sasuke found himself walking through the streets of Konoha in the dead of night. His body was still sore from the beating they had delivered, but his mind was racing furiously with thoughts of the past and plans for the future.

The four Sound ninja had seemed to believe that they were teaching Sasuke the lesson that he was only a big fish in the small pond of Konoha. The truth was, Sasuke had learned that lesson long ago. For all the accolades heaped on him in Konoha-rookie of the year, strongest genin in the exam, the last of the Uchiha-he knew that in the world in which his brother operated, he was nothing more than a convenient pair of eyes to be snatched up by the first powerful ninja to take an interest.

Sasuke knew what the development of a legendary ninja looked like. He grew up with one, after all. The victories against impossible opponents, learning techniques in weeks when others took years, he had seen it all. If anybody on his team was shaping up to be a legendary ninja, it looked like it would be Naruto of all people. Apparently the blonde had only been held back before by his complete inability to learn in a classroom environment.

In his own personal assessment, Sasuke believed himself to be a competent ninja, somebody who worked hard and accomplished the things he was expected to accomplish. If he continued on his present path, he expected that in a few years he would be a solid jounin of the Leaf. The problem was, that path ended in death.

Sasuke wasn't working and training to be the strongest ninja in his rookie class. He wasn't trying to become the strongest chuunin of the Leaf, or the quickest his age to make jounin. The only title that mattered to him was the strongest ninja of the Uchiha, and his present path was never going to win him that accolade.

He could only hope that training with Orochimaru would make him stronger. The legendary ninja had access to some kind of power boosting technique, judging by the cursed seal that Sasuke bore on his neck. Training with another of the legendary three had allowed Naruto to learn the Rasengan in a month, and Sasuke believed that he would experience similar growth given the same opportunity. Orochimaru would be playing games of his own, of course, but Sasuke figured that death by Orochimaru's hand wouldn't be that different than death by Itachi's, and this path at least allowed for the possibility of survival.

Sasuke was brought out of his musings when he saw a familiar head of pink hair ahead of him.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"This is the road people use when they leave town." She replied. "You really are leaving us, aren't you."

"Yes." Sasuke said nothing further as he continued walking down the road, but stopped when Sakura spoke.

"Why? Why leave the village?" Sakura asked.

"In the ninja world, all that matters in strength." Sasuke said. "Staying here is holding me back."

"Just like that? What happened to standing by your team?" Sakura asked.

"I'm done playing ninja with you and Naruto." Sasuke replied. "It's time for us to walk separate paths."

"Sasuke, don't you understand?" Sakura said, near tears. "I love you! Please, please, stay here with me."

Sasuke turned away, uncomfortable with her open display of emotion. Although he didn't reciprocate her feelings, he did find Sakura less annoying than most other girls, and it bothered him to see her in pain. Still, even if he did feel for her what she felt for him, there was no way for them to be together. Involving her in his life would just be too dangerous. Itachi had already demonstrated that he would not hesitate to kill women and children. Sasuke would have time enough for love after his quest for vengeance was over, if he survived.

Sakura must have seen his determination to leave in his body language, as she changed tactics.

"Fine, then. If you're so determined to go, take me with you." She said. "I will help you kill whoever you want to kill, please."

"Where I'm going," Sasuke said, shaking his head, "you can't follow."

Even without the Sharingan activated, Sasuke could see the precise moment that Sakura's body language shifted from heartbroken to righteously indignant.

"If you're going to be that way, I'll call out for the guards, and you won't be going anywhere!"

Sasuke began moving even before she finished speaking. Quickly making his way around behind her, he struck at the back of her neck, intending to knock her out before the fight really started. His attack landed, but did nothing but shatter the chimney that had taken Sakura's place.

Activating the Sharingan, Sasuke followed the line of chakra marking Sakura's substitution technique, spotting her on a nearby rooftop as she finished throwing something in the air. Sasuke summoned up all of the speed he could muster using the shunshin technique and charged forward, catching Sakura with a hard clothesline strike across the face as he went by.

Even lying flat on her back on the rooftop, bleeding profusely from her nose, Sakura was smiling at him. Sasuke was just starting to worry when she whispered "boom" at the same time that an explosive note detonated high overhead. Furious, Sasuke charged forward and rendered Sakura unconscious with an unceremonious boot to the head. He took a moment to glare down at his teammate.

"You are," he said, "very annoying."

"It's a little late for a lover's quarrel, isn't it?" A voice came from behind Sasuke. He turned to see two ANBU members regarding him from the opposing rooftop.

"Just a disagreement over some team business." Sasuke said, trying to play it cool. He thought he might have a chance at taking out one member of ANBU. If he struck from surprise, and aimed to kill. Two, already on alert? There was no way he was getting by them through the use of force.

"Your team uses explosive tags to settle arguments?" The cat-masked ANBU asked.

"Now, now, let's not be too hard on the boy. I remember your genin team." His partner commented. "Still, you're going to need to come down to the station for the night. When the girl wakes up we'll straighten this out."

Sasuke paused, trying to decide the best course of action, when an arrow suddenly appeared in the throat of the cat-masked ANBU and his body shattered into small pieces of wood. Before the last branch hit the floor, the giant form of Jiroubou in the first stage of his curse form barrelled into the other ANBU, driving the man back and out of Sasuke's sight. The other three members of the Sound Four joined Sasuke on the roof.

"Jiroubou will take care of that trash while We get out of here." Tayuya said. "Move fast, this whole operation is-"

She was interrupted when Jiroubou's body came flying back towards them. The enormous ninja was unconscious even before he flew over their heads and crashed to the ground. Just as he passed out of sight, the clearly recognizable form of the Hokage joined them on the roof.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tsunade asked. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she did not look happy. The two ANBU appeared at her shoulders.

"We were attempting to take Sasuke Uchiha into custody for disturbing the peace when these foreign ninja attacked." The ANBU in the cat mask reported.

"Ok, I'm too hung over to deal with this right now." Tsunade snapped. "Take them all in, we'll sort this out in the morning."

"Hey, we're not going to go down that easy, you-" Tayuya said, beginning her cursed seal transformation, before she was interrupted by a fist to the face. She flew across two rooftops before slamming into the side of a third building.

"Anybody else want to say anything?" Tsunade asked. When the Sound nin remained silent, she turned to the incoming platoon of ANBU. "Take them in, and go peel that other one off the wall, she should still be alive."

Sasuke had the feeling this was going to be a long night.

ooOoo

Sakura stood in the Hokage's office, unsure of what was going on. She had woken in the hospital to find Kakashi by her bedside. Her sensei had only taken a moment to inform her that Sasuke was still in the village before bringing her to see the Hokage. The Fifth Hokage sat behind the desk and seemed to be sizing her up.

Sakura hoped that she wasn't planning to deliver any horrible news about Sasuke. The usual punishment for deserting a hidden village was death or long term imprisonment. Sakura was still stinging from the feeling of betrayal she had experienced from Sasuke-not to mention the injuries he had inflicted on her-but she was sure that he would come around in time, once he realized how important he was to her, and his team. A harsh punishment from Konoha would destroy any chance of that happening.

"Sakura, I'll cut right to the chase." Tsunade said. "Yesterday's events have forced us to move up some plans that have been in the works for a while. The short version is that Team Seven is going to be split up."

"What? But Lady Hokage-" Sakura said, then stopped when the Hokage held up a hand.

"This happens to most chuunin eventually, although not always at such a young age." Tsunade said. "But the fact is that your teammates won't be safe on a normal mission rotation. Naruto will be travelling the Elemental Countries on a training mission that will last years. Sasuke will be joining Kakashi on the newly reactivated ninjutsu theft squad. Neither will return to regular service until I'm convinced that they can defend themselves against anybody who would target them."

Sakura's head was spinning. It made sense that Sasuke would be a target, as the last member of the Uchiha family. Also, practically speaking, close proximity with Kakashi would keep Sasuke from deserting, as well as preventing anybody from harming him. But why would anybody be after Naruto? And what was she supposed to do while her teammates were off on special assignment?

"As to you," Tsunade continued, apparently sensing Sakura's apprehension, "your next posting is yet to be determined. I've been following your progress through the medical program, and I have to admit that I'm impressed. I've been thinking of taking on an apprentice since I've settled down, and I think you'd be a good fit."

Sakura didn't respond, slightly stunned by how the conversation had gone. She had, like most ninja, occasionally daydreamed about being taken under the wing of a legendary ninja, but she never expected it to actually happen. One-on-one tutelage by somebody like Tsunade was as much of a guarantee that she would ever get of reaching her full potential.

Tsunade seemed to take her shocked silence as hesitation, and sighed. "In addition, Kakashi has asked me to extend you an offer of a position on the jutsu theft squad."

"For some reason," Kakashi commented, "people don't break out their best techniques when you charge at them with the Sharingan active."

"And at the end of the day," Tsunade said, "we don't want you doing anything you won't do whole heartedly. You can take either assignment, or go into the regular rotation for chuunin-level missions. The choice is yours."

ooOoo

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Omake: I always feel like...

"Sakura, what are you doing here?"

"Well, the hidden camera I installed in your bedroom showed that you were packing for a long trip, so I got worried. Then my spotter called and said that you were leaving the Uchiha district heading to the north. 95% of the time when you leave the district to the north, you pass through this plaza. Fortunately, you spend enough time here that I had already installed a reverse summoning seal, so I was able to use that and get here before you did."

"What?"

"I mean, I had a feeling you would be leaving, and everybody who leaves town uses this road..."

ooOoo


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Thanks for all the reviews. I always like hearing what works for people, what didn't work, and why.

I edited in little omake after chapters four and five, as well.

ooOoo

Sakura's head was spinning. Part of her wanted to jump at the chance to spend more time with Sasuke, while another part of her wanted to pound on Sasuke for trying to abandon her. She knew that the chance to learn from Tsunade was something that she should grab on to with both hands, but something was holding her back from committing. Looking around the office, hoping for a moment of inspiration, Sakura saw the Hokage regarding her with kind interest while Kakashi was engrossed in his pornography. She felt a warm feeling sweep over her and knew there was only one decision she could make.

"Training under you would be a great honor, Lady Tsunade." Sakura said. "But I can't abandon my team, even if it is smaller. I'm sorry."

"Very well." Tsunade replied. The legendary kunoichi's emotional control was too good to allow any reaction to Sakura's decision show on her face. "Kakashi, you should be out of town by sunset. You can use briefing room three to get Sakura up to speed."

With that, Kakashi led Sakura out of the Hokage's office. He indicated to Sakura that she should remain silent in the hallways as he took her to the briefing room. Once they were inside and the security seals were engaged, Sakura fairly exploded with questions.

"What the hell is going on? Why didn't you warn me about this? Is Sasuke-" Sakura cut herself off when Kakashi held up a hand.

"I'm sure you have many questions," he said, "why don't you see how many you can answer yourself?"

Sakura took a moment to center herself and consider what had happened that day. She started thinking out loud as the pieces started to fall into place.

"The Hokage said this plan was in the works for a while, but they didn't say anything about it to us until now. And you picked me out of all the people without the Sharingan to be on the jutsu theft squad..." Sakura said, then pointed at Kakashi. "You didn't want them to split up our team! You couldn't just say no to the Hokage, so you negotiated something where I would have a choice."

Kakashi's eye crinkled up in a smile. "Look at that. They make you a chuunin, and all of a sudden you're thinking like a ninja."

Sakura puffed up with pride at the praise, before slumping as another thought occurred to her. "So I'm just going to be dead weight on our new squad?"

"Hey, don't think like that. I only pick people for my squad if I think they'll excel." Kakashi said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Sometimes when you look underneath the underneath you wind up back on the surface."

"Sensei," Sakura said, as another thought occurred to her. "Will Sasuke-is Sasuke in trouble?"

Sakura wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sasuke was her teammate and her true love, but he had just rejected her in the most brutal fashion possible. Not only that, but he had attempted to betray his village as well. She wanted to see him suffer for that, but at the same time she also wanted him to be happy.

"Well, he's not _not_ in trouble. The village frowns on desertion, after all." Kakashi said. "But on the other hand, the village is supposed to keep outside ninja from showing up and threatening people into leaving. So he's not getting busted down to genin or anything, but this is going to be a bit of a black mark on his record."

"Oh," Sakura said. She had a feeling Sasuke wasn't particularly concerned about his career prospects. "Is he doing ok?"

"You'll get to see for yourself soon enough." Kakashi replied. "We meet at the north gate at sunset. Pack for a couple of months in the field."

ooOoo

Sakura showed up at the gate a little before the appointed time. She had mixed feelings at seeing Sasuke already present when she arrived.

"Sasuke, hi." Sakura said, a little shy.

Sasuke just grunted in her direction. He didn't look particularly pleased to see her.

"Look, I hope there are no hard feelings about what happened before..." Sakura trailed off.

"Hn," Sasuke replied. That was definitely an angry grunt.

"I mean, we're going to be working together pretty closely now, so it's important that we get along-"

"Hn," Sasuke interrupted. The look on his face was downright contemptous, and Sakura lost her hold on her temper.

"Hey, you're the one who attacked me, you big jerk! Don't look at me like that!" Sakura was almost yelling. "I handed you my heart and you just threw it in the dirt. I'm going to kick your ass for that, super-eyes or not. I'll teach you not to toy with a maiden's feelings!"

Sakura crossed her arms across her chest and turned away from Sasuke in a huff. Several minutes later she was starting to regret her outburst. Her anger drained away quickly, and she had almost decided to turn around and apologize when Kakashi showed up.

"Hey kids, ready to go?" He asked, leading them out of the village with a cheerful disregard for the tension between his students.

When they had travelled some distance out of the village, Kakashi stopped them in a clearing. Folding his arms across his chest, he fixed his students with a serious gaze. He cut an imposing figure in the moonlight, and even Sasuke regarded him with his full attention.

"Now, the most obvious thing about the ninjutsu theft squad is that we don't talk about the ninjutsu theft squad." Kakashi said. "Not only would it reduce our effectiveness, but Konoha also agreed not to do this kind of thing in the treaty of Kannabi Bridge after the last war.

"Of course, every shinobi knows that if you don't get caught breaking a treaty, that's basically the same as not breaking it." Kakashi continued. "Now, running at people with your Sharingan out is not really a great way to get them to show off their techniques. Do you guys know what we're going to be doing?"

After a moment of silence Sakura volunteered an answer. "Um, I'll be fighting people to bait out techniques while you guys watch?"

Kakashi regarded her with a level gaze. "Do you see a potential problem with that?"

"She'd die." Sasuke said, no emotion in his voice.

"Well, not necessarily. We will be starting out with some pretty low level opponents-it'll be good practice, and it's always nice to discover new and better C & D level techniques." Kakashi replied. "But yes, it's pretty dangerous-and bad teamwork-for us to let Sakura act like a practice dummy while we hide in the bushes.

"Don't worry, there are plenty of little tricks to this, and I know them all." Kakashi said, giving them a thumbs up.

"You've been on a ninjutsu theft squad before, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Ah, remember the first rule." Kakashi said, but his smile indicated that the answer was 'yes.' "Now, the other part of this is about turning the techniques into something the village can use. Sakura, this is some pretty secret stuff about the Sharingan, remember to keep it to yourself."

"I understand, sensei." She replied.

"Good. The great thing about the Sharingan is that it doesn't just let you copy hand signs, it lets you copy any technique that uses hand signs." Kakashi said. "Even if some hand signs are left out, or you don't have good enough chakra control to perform the technique normally, you just need to use some extra chakra to duplicate the technique with the Sharingan."

"But for teaching somebody else..." Sakura said.

"Exactly." Kakashi said, nodding. "Somebody has to figure any missing hand signs and what kind of chakra control is needed for another person to perform the technique. That's where the Third Hokage was so valuable during the second and third shinobi world wars. Our enemies would show us a new technique in the morning, and by the same evening the Professor would have it figured out and would often teach us a superior version."

"That's amazing, sensei." Sakura said.

"Yes, there's a reason they called him the God of Shinobi." Kakashi said. "Now, I'm not expecting you to replace Sarutobi, but if you can start figuring out techniques in the field, that will make our squad that much more effective."

Kakashi tossed Sakura a scroll. Opening it, she saw that it contained notes on ninjutsu technique design and modification. At Kakashi's urging, she unrolled it further and started reading. She found it to be a little dry and technical, but still fascinating. She was just starting to get really engrossed in her reading when a pebble bounced off her forehead.

"Hey!" She yelped.

"The other thing you need to work on is your speed. Improving your reaction time lays the foundation for that." Kakashi explained.

"By distracting me while I'm reading?" Sakura asked, indignant.

"It's important training," Kakashi said, pulling out his little orange book. "That's why I work on it all the time."

ooOoo

The newly formed ninjutsu theft squad moved quickly away from Konoha, but after their first few days of travel they settled into a fairly leisurely pace. Kakashi didn't volunteer their destination, and Sakura had worked with him for long enough to know that meant asking would be futile. He would occasionally interrupt their travel with impromptu sparring sessions, but seemed disinterested in idle conversation. Sasuke remained nearly silent throughout, apparently content not to interact with his team any more than necessary.

Sakura didn't mind the lack of conversation, as she found herself enthralled by her reading-at least when she wasn't being interrupted by a pebble to the noggin. After Kakashi helped her through some initial exercises, performing several different variations on a simple fireball technique, she had dived into the material and hadn't looked back. Sakura had been good with medical techniques, thanks to her chakra control and her ability to absorb information quickly. But in ninjutsu design, she found a calling.

Designing new techniques required more than rote memorization. It required a level of intellectual rigor combined with an instinctive feel for chakra behavior that Sakura only hoped she could reach. There was much to learn-from the simple but elegant rules describing how hand signs effect chakra flow to the complicated theorem explaining why mixing elemental types required a special bloodline-but even a novice like Sakura could see that there was much more left unexplained. To develop a new theory filling in even some of the gaps in current understanding would cement Sakura's reputation for posterity, while the day to day work of applying her theoretical understanding to create and perfect new techniques would strengthen the village. Sakura was excited to get started, and Sasuke's obvious apathy hardly dampened her enthusiastic attempts to explain her hopes and dreams to him.

Finally, after several weeks of travel, Kakashi sat the team down for a talk after breakfast. It was obvious from his demeanor that the true mission was about to begin.

"We are nearing the borders of Tanzaku Town. From here on out we will not be travelling as ninja." Kakashi announced, before tossing a scroll to each of his students. "Your disguises are sealed in those scrolls. Sakura, you will be Sayuri Harada, the daughter of the head of a wealthy shipping family. I will be Katashi Hayata, your bodyguard. Sasuke will be Seiji Ushiba, my apprentice."

Sakura unsealed her costume, and found elegant travelling clothes suitable for a lady of high social station. They also looked to be a good fit, which was a little disturbing. As she was examining her clothes, Kakashi continued his lecture.

"Sayuri's father is sending her on a bit of a vacation tour while he is travelling on business. Our first stop is Tanzaku Town, where I will be attempting to hire ninja guards to escort us to the Paradise Oasis resort in Suna." Kakashi said. "Use the cover names at all times, even when you think we are alone. Also, no use of chakra is permitted whatsoever. It's better to develop good habits when they may not be needed than die because you developed bad ones."

"Sensei?" Sakura asked, raising her hand. "Are you going to tell us more about what's going on?"

"Well, our characters are loosely based off of the leads in Icha Icha: Tales of Forbidden Love," Kakashi said, rummaging around in his vest. "I'm pretty sure I have a copy here somewhere if you want more background information..."

"No!" Sakura interrupted his search, "I mean about the mission."

"Ah, think of it as practice." Kakashi smiled, and Sakura did a double take. At some point when she hadn't been paying attention, he had changed into a full set of samurai armor. A helmet obscured his face, and his left eye was hidden behind an eyepatch. "You're going to have to get comfortable reacting to the unexpected."

ooOoo

The trip into town was uneventful, as were the first couple of days they spent there. Sakura was too young for the gambling halls that made Tanzaku Town famous, but she was certainly old enough to enjoy the well developed shopping district that had sprung up to cater to the large number of tourists passing through town. The fact that their cover roles required Sasuke to accompany her and to carry her things was just a nice bonus.

"Sayuri" and "Seiji" were just leaving their third shoe store of the morning, "Katashi" having left them alone while he sought out their ninja protectors. Sakura was carrying a small bag containing her latest purchase, while Sasuke was laden with the fruits of her efforts at the earlier stores.

"I really think the black pumps were the right choice." Sakura said. "The pink pair was lovely, but the color is a little to on the nose with my hair, don't you think?"

"Hn," Sasuke replied, eyes darting around wildly. Sakura was impressed with how seriously he was taking his role as her bodyguard.

"I really would have liked to get the heels, but they just aren't comfortable to walk in, you know-" Sakura said, before she was interrupted.

"Sayuri." Kakashi suddenly appeared before her out of the crowd, clad in his samurai armor. "Seiji is your bodyguard, not a pack mule."

"Can't he be both?" Sakura asked, blinking innocently up at her teacher.

"Well, I guess now that I'm here to look out for you it's ok to have him carry a few things." Kakashi replied, before turning and gesturing at the men standing beside him. "Please allow me to introduce your ninja protectors, Haru and Ryu."

"These are my elite guards?" Sakura asked, skeptically. They didn't look like much. Haru was short and fat-not stocky and powerful, the way the Akamichi tended to look, but simply out of shape-while Ryu was tall and almost painfully skinny. He looked like he would topple over in a stiff breeze.

"You should know that in the shinobi world appearances can be deceiving." Kakashi replied.

"Yeah, princess, don't worry, you'll be safe with us. We're serious ninja." Ryu spoke up. He undid the top button of his jacket, showing off a hitaite etched with the symbol for the village of Kumogakure, with a line drawn horizontally across its face. Haru rolled up his sleeve to reveal a similar hitaite tied around his upper arm.

"Oh my, missing nin." Sakura said, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. "Should we really be trusting our safety to criminals, Katashi?"

"You know your father prefers not to draw the official attention of the major hidden villages." Kakashi replied. "Besides, many missing nin are guilty only of leaving their home villages, and are quite trustworthy."

"Yeah," Ryu spoke up, "and you know we're tough enough to survive out in the world on our own."

"You must be very strong." Sakura said. "Were you-what's the word, jounin? Back in Kumo, I mean?"

"Well, not exactly." Ryu replied, scratching the back of his head. "We totally would have made chuunin though, but the examiner was totally biased. That's actually what led to our leaving the village, you see-"

Ryu cut himself off as Haru clapped him on the shoulder, bringing his hands together in front of his body. "Anyways, you don't want to hear our life story. We'll meet you at the gates tomorrow morning."

With that, both ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura raised her eyebrow at Kakashi but, mindful of her orders, said nothing about their "ninja protection" as the group made its way back to the hotel.

ooOoo

Whatever Sakura's qualms about the ninja duo's fighting ability, they soon proved to be excellent travel companions. Ryu remained gregarious and upbeat throughout their journey, enlivening the camp site with humorous stories he claimed to have drawn from his ninja career, however unlikely it seemed. He also proved quite adept in telling jokes that were just dirty enough to make "Sayuri" blush, without every truly crossing the line of impropriety. Sakura even caught Sasuke cracking a smile at his antics a couple of times. Haru, on the other hand, was quiet, but seemed companionable enough. He joined the other men in a card game every evening before bed.

On the fifth morning of their journey, Ryu approached Sakura after they had broken camp but before they had set out for the day.

"Say, princess, this trip has been pretty quiet so far, want to see some real ninja magic?" He asked.

Sakura nodded, and he knelt before her, holding his palm out to show that it was empty. Then, in a motion that a civilian would have found too fast to follow, he snatched a barrette out of her hair and returned his hand to its original position. After training with Kakashi the grab was easy to see, and Sakura had to redirect her instinctive move to intercept his hand into a motion to cover her mouth as if impressed.

"You see, princess? When you train like we do, the hand is truly quicker than the eye." Ryu said, puffing himself up a little. He then tossed the barrette back to Sakura before he and Haru disappeared into the surrounding forest.

Every day since they set out from Tanzaku Town, the ninja would vanish into the forest when the group set out. Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke would then make their way down the road, while the ninja patrolled the surrounding area, alert for potential threats. It was a frustratingly slow way to travel, especially when the mission parameters prevented Sakura from reading while she walked.

The usual pattern was broken an hour into their travels when the group rounded a corner to see Ryu and Haru standing before them on the road.

"Ryu, what's going on?" Sakura asked.

"I'm afraid you guys aren't going any farther." Ryu replied.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Working as escorts doesn't really pay enough to keep us in the lifestyle we like." Ryu said. "Robbing people, on the other hand, pays pretty well. Letting our marks hire us out like this saves us a lot of work. Unfortunately, that means we can't let any witnesses walk away..."

"Oh no." Kakashi's voice was completely flat, belying the emotional content of his words. "We have been betrayed by our ninja protectors. Whatever will we do."

He reached under his armor and seemed to be rummaging around for something. The two ninja tensed, but waited to see what he was up to, relatively unconcerned with the actions of a civilian. After a moment, he exclaimed in triumph and pulle out a well worn book with an orange cover.

"Ah! I knew I had this with me. Sakura, please make sure to leave one of them alive." Kakashi said, before he and Sasuke both disappeared in puffs of smoke.

"What the hell?" Haru exclaimed. He seemed as surprised as Sakura at this unexpected turn of events. "Ryu, this is some kind of trap!"

"It doesn't really matter," Ryu replied, his usually friendly face twisted into an ugly sneer. "We still have to kill them all. You find the other two while I take care of the girl."

With that, Ryu charged towards Sakura, obviously aiming to impale her with a kunai before she could react. Sakura, still shocked by the way her sensei had let this play out, didn't move at first. Ryu pounded closer, poised to ram his kunai through her chest without breaking stride. Sakura, operating almost by reflex, reacted at the last possible second.

Stepping forward and to the side, she brushed Ryu's attack aside with her left arm while swinging her right hand around to attack, palm first. Her civilian disguise left her unarmed, so she was forced to use the only weapon that she always had available. At the precise moment that her hand made contact with Ryu's chest, she channelled medical chakra through her right palm. After another month of training she was still unable to properly form medical scalpels, but she was getting closer, now able to send a spike of medical chakra into her chosen victim. It still felt as if she was piercing his heart with her own fingers, but the more extreme physical feedback had been removed from the technique, much to her relief. Sakura stepped back from the contact and watched Ryu clutch his chest and fall to the ground.

"You bitch!" The shout, and a faint crackling noise, were all the warning Sakura had as she came under attack. She dove to the side as a bolt of lightning struck her previous position. Sakura was caught in the edge of the attack, and it turned her controlled dive into more of a belly flop into the ground.

Sakura lay in the long grass, stunned, for just an instant. Knowing she didn't want to be caught by that kind of technique full force, she layered a clone on top of herself before performing the hiding like a mole technique, sinking into the ground.

Once she had arrived in her momentary refuge, Sakura took a moment to take stock of her situation. Her opponents didn't seem to be much beyond genin level, although that lightning technique was pretty impressive. She hoped Sasuke had been able to copy it with his Sharingan. Thinking of Sasuke reminded her of her team's role, and she reproached herself for killing Ryu before they had a chance to steal any of his techniques. She would just have to do a better job of putting Haru through his paces.

Wits gathered, Sakura used the replacement technique to bring herself to a tree branch she had marked at the beginning of the battle. She arrived just in time to watch Haru plant a kunai in the back of her clone's skull. Sakura created another clone to jump down into the road as her previous clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"You guys really are genin, aren't you?" The clone asked, as Sakura made use of a simple ventriloquism technique. When she had line of sight on her clones she could provide a pretty convincing fake. It wouldn't fool somebody like Kakashi, but Haru was obviously not up to Kakashi's level. Her clone put on a fake look of sympathy as it gestured at Ryu's body. "Or were, I guess."

Haru replied with an angry roar as he spun around and loosed off another lightning bolt. Of course, Sakura's clone danced out of the way with supernatural grace, since its movement wasn't constrained by things like mass or muscle strength.

She led Haru on a merry chase around the clearing, but it soon became clear that he was something of a one trick pony. After throwing around a few more lightning bolts, he apparently ran out of chakra and switched to throwing kunai and shuriken. He was looking pretty winded when he finally wandered to a position underneath the real Sakura, and didn't even look up when she dropped out of the branch and planted her elbow on the crown of his head, knocking him out.

As soon as the fight was over, Kakashi came striding into the clearing, now clad in his usual shinobi uniform, Sharingan eye exposed. Nodding at Sakura, he pulled a syringe out of his pocket and injected it into the unconscious Haru. The missing nin's back arched as he came awake, and his eyes met Kakashi's.

"Sharingan..." Haru said, before his voice trailed away and he stared forward, unseeing.

Kakashi began asking questions about Haru's companions, their plans, and their home base. Haru answered all of the questions in a mechanical tone of voice that suggested that he definitely wasn't all there. Sakura wasn't sure if it was the drug Kakashi had used, some kind of Sharingan-based technique, or a combination of the two, but it was a little creepy. Finally, Kakashi seemed content with what he had heard, sitting up and pulling his forehead protector down over his Sharingan eye.

"Well, that's that. Of course, we can't leave any witnesses..." Kakashi said. Sakura tensed, then began walking toward him, but stopped when Kakashi held up his hand. "Not you, Sakura, I know what you are capable of."

Sasuke entered the clearing in response to Kakashi's gesture, glaring at his squad leader. His usual stare was made all the more effective by the fact that he had the Sharingan active, whirling briskly. Sasuke didn't take his eyes off of Kakashi as he pulled out a kunai and drove it through the back of Haru's skull, killing him instantly. Sasuke then spun and walked out of the clearing. Kakashi took a moment to use an earth based technique that sent both missing-nin underground before following him out of the clearing.

Sakura remained behind, looking at the ground that had become Haru and Ryu's final resting place. She had been joking around with Ryu this morning, and then killed him in the afternoon. Of course, in between he had tried to kill her. She recorded his name on her own personal memorial stone, but she didn't feel the same sort of mixed feelings that still came to mind when she thought of Dosu.

Still, it was a chilling testament to the harsh world inhabited by missing nin. Eating breakfast in the morning, buried in an unmarked grave before the sun set. They thought that they could go it alone, prey on the weak without the restraint imposed by a hidden village. They were right, but only until somebody stronger came along... then they had nobody to protect them. Sakura shuddered. She trusted her team, but she couldn't imagine making her way without the implicit protection granted by her Konoha hitaite.

ooOoo

Freed of the need to keep their travel to civilian speeds, the ninjutsu theft team made good time towards Otakame Sato, the location of the remainder of Haru and Ryu's team. Kakashi called them to a halt on the outskirts of town.

"As you guys have probably guessed by now, part of our mission is to eliminate this gang." Kakashi said. "We estimate they've killed between fifty and one-hundred people-last month they killed a family of Konoha merchants, and we were fortunate enough to have an informant who was able to give us a description of their 'escort.'

"With the rest of the gang identified, this should be easy enough." He continued. "Sasuke and I will join the group of people travelling under the gang's protection. We will relay information about our travel plans to Sakura, and at the appropriate moment you will strike from ambush."

"Um, sensei," Sakura asked, "won't that be a little dangerous? They might not all be such weak ninja."

"Ah," Kakashi said, "don't worry, your sensei has thought of that. Here, smell this, but don't inhale too deeply."

He unstoppered a vial and passed it over to Sakura. She took a whiff and smelled nothing. She said as much and passed the vial over to Sasuke for his perusal.

"What you do not smell is called iocaine serum." Kakashi said. "It is odorless, tasteless, disperses instantly in water, and is one of the more useful tools in our arsenal."

"What does it do?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing." Kakashi replied. "Well, at first. It will remain in the system of whoever consumes it for a couple of weeks, until they use a concentrated burst of chakra. Then the effects set in. Slower reflexes, blurred vision... it turns the most deadly jounin into a stumbling rookie, while still allowing them to perform all of their techniques.

"I'll dose our guards the day before the ambush," Kakashi continued, as he took the vail back from Sasuke, "and you should be able to take it from there."

ooOoo

Instead of seeking out lodging as Sasuke had expected, Kakashi's first move when they entered town was to seek out a local bar. Kakashi stopped Sasuke outside of the bar and gave him the look that meant a serious lecture was about to be delivered. The effect of the look was undiminished by the samurai helmet and eye patch Kakashi was currently wearing.

Sasuke stood to attention while grumbling internally. The last thing he wanted was another lecture, not after they had already had a long talk about the taking of human life.

"What you are about to learn is as important as any combat art." Kakashi said. "Controlling the flow of information is an essential part of being a ninja. Many have given their lives in order to preserve village secrets, or ferret out the secrets of our enemies."

"Hn," Sasuke nodded to show he understood.

"When you leave a trail of bodies behind like we will be, you can't keep rumors from spreading." Kakashi continued. "You can, however, influence what those rumors will be."

With that, Kakashi turned and walked into the bar. Sasuke trailed behind, silently impressed by the transformation that came over his teacher as he crossed the threshold.

Sharingan Kakashi was famous within Konoha and throughout the elemental countries as a shining example of what a ninja should be. He never showed an emotion he didn't want to reveal-you couldn't tell from his facial expression whether he was reading a book, talking to a friend, or in the middle of a fight to the death. His every move was precise and efficient. Whether he was wearing his typical ninja outfit, samurai armor, or even a set of pajamas, there was no mistaking that he was a dangerous man, a weapon to be wielded by his village.

All of that vanished as Kakashi entered the bar. Instead he took on the relaxed swagger of a fighting man looking forward to a drink at the end of a long day. A slight limp betrayed a lingering injury, but he held his head high as he surveyed the bar. Something intangible changed as well. Where Kakashi usually gave off the emotional presence of a sheathed katana, he now seemed warm and open, a gregarious warrior ready to share his tales with anybody who would listen.

Kakashi took a seat at the bar and sighed as he ordered a drink. "You know, every time I see ninja in action I start to think I'm too old for this job."

"Do tell." The bartender replied. Sasuke couldn't tell if he was genuinely interested or just looking to earn a better tip.

"Would you believe that I'm only alive now because a thirteen year old girl decided I wasn't enough of a threat to be worth killing?" Kakashi asked, before launching into an enthusiastic retelling of the day's events. Of course, notably absent from his version of the story was any of his own involvement in the arrangement of the deadly combat. Sasuke noticed that quite a crowd had gathered by the time Kakashi began describing the fireballs and lightning being thrown around by the "mysterious pink-haired ninja," and the end of the story-illustrated by a tactical diagram utilizing two salt shakers and an abandoned sake saucer-actually elicited a muted round of applause.

Kakashi's tale set off a round of ninja stories from the bar's clientele. Sasuke couldn't help thinking that most of the tales had even less basis in fact than Kakashi's. Nobody else in the bar gave any indication of being even close to the level of skill required to survive against the opponents they claimed to have fought.

By the time the stories had finished, a new group of patrons had entered the bar, and Kakashi was persuaded by the promise of a free round of drinks to repeat his tale of the pink-haired girl with a mysterious vendetta against missing nins. The combat feats he described grew more implausible as the night wore on, until he was describing how the girl was regrowing destroyed limbs while wielding weapons made out of magma to cut through swathes of A-rank enemies. That particular version of the story ended shortly before Kakashi fell asleep against the bar, his cheek resting next to his once-more refilled saucer of sake.

"You'd better help get him home, boy." The bartender said to Sasuke. "He sounds like he's had a long day."

Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement, grunting as he helped Kakashi get to his feet. The two of them swayed unsteadily as they made their way out the door and down the street. As soon as they were out of sight of the bar Kakashi stood up straight and dusted his hands off, practically radiating satisfaction.

"Well, that ought to get the ball rolling." Kakashi said.

Sasuke couldn't restrain a skeptical grunt.

"Well, the point isn't that everyone believe every word." Kakashi explained. "Just as long as there are enough versions of the story circulating that people figure there's a grain of truth in there somewhere."

ooOoo

Several days later, Sakura was crouched in the trees near her chosen ambush point, blissfully unaware of the reputation her sensei was trying to cultivate on her behalf. She was feeling some anticipatory jitters that went away when the travelling party came into view, just as she had been told to expect.

As Kakashi had informed her, the remaining three enemy ninja preferred to travel with the convoy rather than through the woods, maintaining a triangle formation around the travelling civilians. He had also indicated that the ninja in the front of the formation was the least likely to know any valuable techniques, and therefore the most expendable if she wanted to make a flashy entrance.

With that thought in mind, Sakura left a clone behind on her branch while quietly dropping to the ground behind the tree she had been hiding in. She counted to three, then sent her clone leaping toward the travellers in a spectacular attack, a transplanted war cry projected from the clone's approximate location.

At the same time, Sakura sprinted from behind the tree, crouched low to the ground, and made a beeline for the man in the front of the formation. As she had hoped, the three enemy nin were distracted by her clone for the second that she spent crossing open ground, and she was on and then past the point man before they had a chance to react. As she passed, her hand slid along the side of his head and she sent a spike of medical chakra into his brain. The man was just falling to the ground when two ninjutsu attacks flashed toward Sakura. The fireball and water bullet impacted a tree behind her as she continued to run.

When no immediate follow up technique came her way, Sakura felt enough confidence that Kakashi's plan was working that she paused to look at her opponents. It was all she could do to stifle a laugh. Both men were fumbling through hand signs at a pace that would have embarassed an academy student. While she watched, one of them abandoned his ninjutsu and flung several shuriken downrange. Only one was on course to hit her, and Sakura easily jumped up to a nearby tree branch to avoid it.

The other man finally finished his technique, sending an impressive dragon made out of fire directly towards the spot that Sakura used to be in. Sakura moved even further out of the way of the technique out of an excess of caution, and threw a few kunai downrange to keep her opponents honest. Somewhat to her surprise, one of the men managed to stumble into the path of her throw, taking a solid kunai hit to the upper thigh.

Sakura continued to dance around her opponents for a few more minutes. They produced some more impressive techniques, but none ever came close to hitting her. Sakura couldn't help wondering if this was how combat always felt for Kakashi.

Finally it became clear that her opponents were running low on chakra and were resorting to the repetitive use of low level techniques in order to conserve energy and try to score a lucky hit. Sakura moved in to finish the fight off quickly, easily getting behind her opponents and delivering a deadly caress to the back of their heads.

Sakura turned away from the fallen bodies of her opponents to see the civilian crowd staring at her in horror.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that!" She exclaimed. "I just saved your lives!"

"Are you crazy? You just killed our protectors!" An old man, apparently the leader of the group, replied.

"Protectors? Hah!" Sakura said. "These men are part of a gang of criminals that hire themselves out as guards and then kill their clients! Fortunately my team managed to track them down, otherwise you guys would have been next."

Kakashi and Sasuke stepped out from the crowd to stand behind Sakura. Kakashi addressed them all, using his most serious authority figure voice. "It's true, I'm afraid. Konoha has been after this group for a long time, we were just fortunate to get a lucky break recently."

"You see?" Sakura asked. "That's the risk you take when you hire missing nins. It might cost a little more to hire Konoha nins, but I think we're worth it.

"In fact," Sakura added, seeing that the crowd still looked a little apprehensive about their situation, "I'll prove it. We'll escort you the rest of the way to your destination, no charge!"

Sakura felt a warm feeling inside at the relieved smiles that broke out upon her pronouncement. She thought she heard somebody behind her mumble the word "troublesome," but when she spun around Kakashi and Sasuke were wearing their usual stoic expressions.

ooOoo

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Omake: Inconceivable

"Say, sensei," Sakura asked, "how did you get those guys to take the iocaine serum anyways?"

"It was simple enough," Kakashi replied, "I just added it to the miso soup that everybody had for breakfast."

"Wait... everybody? You ate the soup as well?" Sakura asked.

"Of course." Kakashi answered. "Otherwise they may have gotten suspicious."

"But then, if something went wrong, you wouldn't have been able to back me up!" Sakura said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kakashi replied, chuckling. "As soon as I found out about iocaine serum I spent the next five years building up an immunity to it."

ooOoo


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry about the delay, life got kind of hectic.

As always, I appreciate all reviews, and particularly like to hear what worked for you, what didn't, and why.

ooOoo

Sakura felt a weight lift off of her shoulders as the gates of Konoha came into view. After two months of sleeping in shifts, the thought of spending a whole night asleep in her own bed, protected by the walls of her village, was more appealing than she ever would have expected.

That wasn't to say that she regretted joining the team. With Kakashi taking an active interest in their development, and the frequent life or death battles-albeit against weak opponents-she and Sasuke had both improved by leaps and bounds. Haru's lightning bolt attack remained the coolest technique they were able to steal, but one thing Kakashi emphasized was that, despite the focus of their squad, it took more than strong techniques to be a good ninja.

Improvised trap making contests, games of ninja tag, lectures on subterfuge, and a hundred other lessons on subjects that Kakashi thought every ninja ought to know about filled their travel time between targets. Their sensei firmly believed that manipulating a situation to play to your strengths was just as important as getting stronger, if not more so. Sakura appreciated the cerebral approach to combat, but she was concerned about her own mix of skills. She didn't really have any long distance attack techniques, and up close she would go down to one hit from any strong opponent. Kakashi said that should just serve as an incentive to focus on her strength in deception and misdirection, but she would rather have been able to throw lightning around like Sasuke.

Sasuke had taken to the lightning bolt technique immediately, and could throw around decent size strikes about as easily as he could perform his fireball techniques. Sakura, by contrast, if she put almost all of her chakra into the technique and executed it as cleanly as she knew how, could generate little more than a static shock. Her only consolation was that the technique, while fast and debilitating, was very inaccurate. Sasuke could start the lightning off in the direction that he wanted, but from that point on it behaved like a natural bolt of lightning and took the path of least resistance.

Her relationship with Sasuke was not exactly progressing as she had imagined. She could tell that he genuinely enjoyed training and learning new techniques, and a couple of times she even saw him smile when he lost himself in an exercise. However, he was never more than coldly polite and professional in his interactions with her in a way that felt even more distant than his disdain for her before the chunin exam. In response, she had backed off on asking him out, or even trying to have personal conversations with him, but if he was thankful for the space she was giving him he sure wasn't showing it. Sakura was actually looking forward to spending some time away from her teammate so she could regroup and approach things from a fresh perspective.

Lost in thought, Sakura listened with half an ear as Kakashi made their report to the Hokage. When he finished, she executed the formalities of farewell as quickly as was polite before making her way back home. Jumping into bed, she took a moment before she passed out to look forward to the month of relaxation to come.

ooOoo

Three days later, Sakura was bored. Her friends were all out of town on missions, Sasuke wanted nothing to do with her when they were off duty, Kakashi had disappeared, and she was tired of sitting around all day reading. She wanted to learn something new-her control over the production of earth-aligned chakra had improved to the point that she thought Ebisu would show her something, but he was nowhere to be found.

Finally, she decided to head over to the hospital. Even if everybody else was gone or in hiding, she should be able to find Kabuto. Following the directions from the receptionist, she tracked him down in one of the newly remodeled operating rooms, hunched over a complicated seal array etched onto a table. As usual, Kabuto detected her approach and turned to face her before she said anything.

"Ah, Sakura, I heard you had returned." Kabuto said, smiling. "I apologize for not seeking you out sooner to welcome you back to Konoha."

"Oh that's-" Sakura said, then jerked back in surprise as she took in the bruises covering Kabuto's frame, including a sizable black eye. "What happened to you?"

"This?" Kabuto asked, reaching up to touch his eye. "Just a training injury."

"Come on," Sakura replied, "what kind of training injury is so bad that you can't heal it?"

"Oh, well," Kabuto said, looking at the ground, embarassed. "Lady Tsunade believes that bruises are good motivation to learn how to dodge. If I heal them myself, she is quite enthusiastic in reapplying them."

"She-wait, the Hokage is training you?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, she has taken me on as her apprentice." Kabuto replied. "I'm very lucky to-oof."

Kabuto was cut off when Sakura leapt forward and gave him a congratulatory hug. He stood stiffly at first, surprised by the contact, but eventually relaxed and gave Sakura a friendly pat on the back. She stepped back, smiling broadly.

"That's great! You totally deserve to catch a break after all the hard work you've done." Sakura said. She meant it, too. She felt a slight twinge of regret at having passed up the opportunity, but she couldn't think of a better person than Kabuto for Tsunade to take under her wing. "But why are you stuck back here in the hospital if you're her apprentice?"

"Lady Tsunade has taught me a lot already, but she expects me to figure some things out on my own." Kabuto said. "I'm supposed to be learning by examining these new operating tables, but I have to admit it's quite difficult."

"What are these things, anyway?" Sakura asked, curious.

"Well, as you know, performing medical techniques requires tremendous chakra control." Kabuto explained. "It's very rare to find somebody with that level of control who also has a large amount of chakra. Accordingly, certain techniques can only be performed by legendary medics like Lady Tsunade.

"This table is supposed to help change that." Kabuto continued, gesturing at the table. It certainly looked impressive. A large crystal stood at the head of the table, connected by a continuous line of seals to several smaller crystals at the foot. "Once the head medic keys in by putting some blood on the primary crystal, a team of nins feed chakra into the secondary crystals, and the seals provide a steady supply of medical chakra to the surgeon."

"Wow," Sakura replied, "you're going to to use that?"

"No," Kabuto said. "Lady Tsunade wants me to study it and write up a report on how I think it works and how I think it can best be used."

"I didn't know you needed to learn seals to be a medic." Sakura said.

"Lady Tsunade believes a medic should be well rounded." Kabuto said, then sighed. "I'm afraid I'm a long way from figuring anything out..."

"Oh, I'll let you get back to work," Sakura said, then paused. "I was just hoping maybe you could give me some new technique to work on."

"Well, it's not forbidden to teach you things now that you're a chunin, but I suspect Lady Tsunade thinks I'm far away from being ready to take on a student of my own. However," Kabuto said, reaching into his vest for a scroll that he set on the shelf beside him, "if one of my old training scrolls should go missing, well, she can't be too upset with me just for being absent minded, ne?"

"Thanks!" Sakura said, pocketing the scroll.

"Don't mention it." Kabuto said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Please."

ooOoo

A few days later, Sakura was in her usual training ground, working on one of the chakra control exercises from Kabuto's scroll. She was seated in a cross-legged position, one leaf stuck to her forehead while another leaf floated above her right hand. Her left hand was coated in medical chakra, and she was frowning in concentration. A cough behind her shocked her out of her trance-like state, and both leaves fell to the ground as she spun around.

"Sensei!" Sakura cried out, seeing the familiar pair of sunglasses that were Ebisu's trademark. "You surprised me!"

"A ninja should always be aware of her environment," Ebisu replied, but his soft smile took the sting out of his words.

"A ninja should also put her all into her training." Sakura quoted one of his favorite sayings back at him.

"Fair enough." Ebisu replied. "I hope you've been continuing your elemental training as well?"

"Yes," Sakura said, "I barely feel like I'm wasting any chakra at all with earth techniques now. Kakashi taught us some basic techniques in other elements and I've made a little bit of progress with fire and water, but I'm hopeless with wind and lightning techniques."

"Hmm, let's just focus on earth techniques for now." Ebisu said. "True mastery of a single element is more than many chunin can manage, and I'm afraid you're already too old to take a run at the Third Hokage's record for multi-elemental proficiency."

"Sure, sure." Sakura replied. "I really want to learn that earth clone technique, I've already been in a few situations where it would have come in handy."

Ebisu obliged, demonstrating the hand seals for the earth clone technique. Sakura found that it was not too different from generating a regular clone, other than requiring that she push earth chakra into the technique and that she had to tag a source of raw material for the technique to use. She was nervous when she felt about half of her chakra supply drain into the technique, but that was erased by the elation she felt when a duplicate of herself rose up out of the ground.

"Good." Ebisu commented. "You're still wasting a little bit of chakra on the elemental conversion, but this is a usable clone."

"But it's not doing anything." Sakura said, disappointed. The clone was indeed simply standing in place, staring straight ahead. Sakura couldn't feel the sort of puppet-string connection that she used to control her illusionary clones.

"Well, you haven't given it any instructions." Ebisu replied.

"What?" Sakura said, then turned to the clone. "You! Walk forward."

Dutifully, the copy of Sakura began trudging forward, stopping when Sakura yelled at it to stop. Sakura turned back to Ebisu, nonplussed.

"This doesn't seem very effective, sensei."

"Well, the clone will follow simple verbal commands, which can be helpful in some situations." Ebisu replied. "But you're right that it's not exactly the most elegant method of control.

"What you need to do," Ebisu continued, "is make a connection with the clone. It's an earth clone, so the easiest way to do it is to extend your chakra through the earth to connect with it."

Closing her eyes in concentration, Sakura extended some chakra into the ground. Doing her best to keep it tightly focused, she extended a thread in the direction of her clone. She could feel some chakra leaking out into the surrounding earth, but focused her attention on the tip of the probe. When it reached the feet of her clone she felt a jolt, and a sudden sense of a second set of limbs and senses. Opening her eyes in shock, she had the dizzying experience of seeing the clearing from two perspectives at the same time.

Seeing her reaction, Ebisu stepped forward and tugged her forehead protector down to act as a blindfold . Her stomach settled down as she now saw herself only from the clone's perspective.

"In time, you will learn to sort out the two sets of sensations." Ebisu said. "It can be a bit tricky. Here, dodge this."

Ebisu lobbed a rock gently in her direction. Seeing where it was headed, Sakura ducked to the side, then fell to one knee disoriented. The sensation of moving without having her viewpoint change at all was completely alien.

"You see the problem." Ebisu said. "Fortunately, you can work on it on your own-and you will have to do so, as I have to run to make an appointment."

With that, Ebisu disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sakura dropped the connection to her clone and ripped off the blindfold, looking around the clearing. Her confusion was cleared up as she saw Kakashi observing her from the edge of the training ground, leaning casually up against a tree.

Training under somebody other than your primary sensei was something of a breach of ninja etiquette. As far as Sakura could tell, it was a holdover from the days of wandering ninja clans, when a second "sensei" might try to pump their student for clan secrets, or use the allure of new techniques to pull a trainee away from their clans. Coming from a civilian background, Sakura found the whole thing a little bit foreign, especially the implicit idea that her sensei had some kind of ownership claim over her.

"Ah, my own student, seeking lessons from another. It wounds me, right here." Kakashi said, holding his hand over his heart. The effect was undercut by the book of pornography evident in his other hand.

"Hello, sensei." Sakura said, no shame evident in her voice. She may have breached ninja etiquette, but Kakashi was not exactly the model of a by the book ninja himself. His chronic tardiness violated at least two of the Shinobi Rules, and pawning her off on another teacher so he could train Sasuke in private was hardly the act of a conscientious sensei.

Sakura maintained her defiant posture, but couldn't help but feel some trepidation as Kakashi strode forward. He paused just outside of her personal space, and she forcibly suppressed a nervous tremor as he loomed over her. After a moment he broke the grim mood with a broad smile that she could sense through his mask.

"Actually, I'm glad to see that you're so eager to work." Kakashi said. "We can use the next few weeks to get some serious training in."

"Um, thanks?" Sakura said. Long experience with Kakashi had taught her that his favors always came with a catch.

"For example, you'll find earth clones easier to make if you work on your elemental shaping separately." Kakashi said, putting his book away and reaching down to the ground. As he stood up, he drew a staff made of solidifed earth out of the ground. "It comes in handy on its own sometimes, too."

Sakura followed suit, kneeling down and placing her palm on the earth. She guided her chakra into the ground, finding it much easier to control than when she attempted to shape medical chakra. Once she felt like she had a solid grip on the below ground object, she reached down and pulled a tonfa from the ground. The shape-essentially a stick with a handle-was easy enough to form, and if Kakashi wanted to do some weapons practice she was better off going for speed and flexibility rather than trying to neutralize his reach advantage.

"Not bad." Kakashi smiled at her again, and Sakura's feeling of foreboding returned. "Now, we can work on some survival exercises."

ooOoo

Sakura groaned as she stretched out before going to bed. It was a mystery to her why Kakashi only seemed to have two settings: lazy slacker and insane taskmaster. It was pretty clear which version of her sensei she would be seeing for the rest of the month. She could only hope that his penchant for tardiness would give her time to rest up between training sessions.

She frowned at the series of bruises lining her forearm, courtesy of a few blocks that were not timed as well as she would have liked. After a moment's thought she decided that she had used up too much chakra today to spare any to heal herself. Better to wake up with a sore arm than risk true chakra exhaustion.

With a sigh, Sakura tossed herself into bed, and soon found herself deeply asleep.

Sakura woke up from a dream in which she was falling through the air to find that she was falling through the air. Fortunately she had been trained to fall well even when half asleep, and smoothly rolled to a standing position, finding herself standing in her back yard in a combat position, facing... Kakashi.

"Sensei, what the hell? The sun isn't even up yet." Sakura complained.

"The enemy isn't going to wait to attack until it's convenient for you." Kakashi replied. "Now, stop talking and get ready to defend yourself."

ooOoo

Later that day, a rather dispirited Sakura Haruno trudged back towards the village from Team Seven's training grounds. Kakashi hadn't let up any from the previous day, and if anything seemed to be stepping up the pressure. She was starting to feel a lot less envious of the month Sasuke had spent under Kakashi's personal tutelage, and more grateful that she had not been exposed to the demanding taskmaster side of her teacher's personality before now.

Another cause for gratitude was the fact that Kakashi had let her out in time for lunch. She was looking forward to getting a big meal to replenish the energy she had expended this morning. Sakura was brought out of her thoughts of lunch by a clicking noise, but found herself hanging upside down before she realized what had happened. Standing before her was the familiar masked figure of her teacher.

"A ninja always has to be wary of attack, you know."

ooOoo

Sakura watched through the eyes of her clone as it crawled towards Kakashi's position. For this exercise, her teacher limited himself to techniques that she knew and to fighting at her speed. Given the handicaps in her favor, it was quite frustrating that she was currently behind seven to nothing in these little contests. At the moment he appeared simply to be reading his little orange book, but Sakura knew from bitter experience not to take him lightly. She was positioned well back from his location, and her clone had already avoided two tripwires on its way in.

Finally, her clone reached Kakashi, and Sakura had it place a kunai against his throat. "Got you, sensei!"

As she had half expected, Kakashi's form melted into the ground, and he reappeared behind her clone. Just as he was opening his mouth to say something, she detonated the explosive tags her clone was carrying.

Sakura was rocked back by the force of the explosion even from a hundred feet away. She was just starting to worry about Kakashi's safety when she felt the cool steel of a kunai against the back of her neck.

"I'm glad you're starting to take this seriously."

ooOoo

It was almost a relief when it was time for their team to take to the field once more. Kakashi didn't explain anything about their mission other than to tell her to pack for a long trip and meet him by the east gate in the morning, but Sakura was just grateful at the thought of a day's respite from training.

She was feeling less grateful after two hours of waiting for Kakashi, accompanied by a completely silent Sasuke. She had hoped that simply ignoring her sullen teammate would eventually lead him to miss her presence-and in her more extended daydreams, seek out her company-but instead he responded by becoming even more withdrawn. He grunted in response to her greeting, but otherwise made no effort to interact with her while they waited.

When Kakashi did arrive, Sakura was all set to chew him out for being late, but held her tongue when she saw the uncharacteristically serious look in his eye. The jutsu theft squad proceeded out of the village in silence, Sakura and Sasuke following behind Kakashi as he led them into the woods. After half an hour of travel he called a halt and brought them in close. Kakashi opened the briefing with a question.

"Sakura, what can you tell us about Grass Country?" He asked.

"Kusagakure is one of the minor villages between Iwa and Konoha. They were our ally in the Third Shinobi World War." Sakura replied, then paused, racking her brain for more information. "They are supposed to be quite skilled in diplomacy, which is how they have maintained their independence."

"Tsch," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "I always forget just how much the Academy sanitizes things for you guys.

"Ok, listen up," Kakashi said, adopting a lecturing pose. "The first thing you have to understand about Kusagakure is that they have been allied with the winners of all three of the Shinobi World Wars... because they allied with all sides of the wars."

"That's impossible." Sasuke replied. "No Hokage would ever let a Kage play both sides against each other like that."

"Ah, but that's the thing." Kakashi said. "Kusagakure is not led by a Kage, but by its capos-what we would call its council of jounin. They are organized in an ever shifting array of political parties, but can roughly be grouped into two coalitions, the Green and the Yellow. The Green support an alliance with Konoha, while the Yellow support alliance with Iwa. It's very difficult for an outsider to tell which group is actually in control of Kusa at any given moment."

"That sounds crazy." Sakura said. "How can people in the same village be on different sides in a war?"

"Kusa nin have a certain mental flexibility when it comes to warfare." Kakashi replied. "They don't make much trouble outside of their borders, they don't tolerate much interference within their borders, and it basically isn't worth the trouble for a major village to bring them to heel, especially when it chances dragging all the other villages into a world war."

"If they're such a mess, why are we going there?" Sakura asked. It seemed a pretty safe guess as to their mission destination.

"Kusagakure actually has an old saying that applies here: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Konoha can't just ignore villages that are a hassle to deal with." Kakashi said, then smiled. "We're going to go help out an old friend of mine. At least, I think he's a friend. They have another saying about that: the difference between an enemy and a friend is that a friend can stab you in the back."

Kakashi paused in thought before continuing. "Look, the point I'm making here is that the average Kusa nin probably can't stand up to you guys in combat, but they're still dangerous. While we're in Kusagakure keep your mouths shut and your ears open."

ooOoo

The rest of the trip went by uneventfully. The terrain around them changed so gradually that it was hard to tell exactly where the Land of Fire ended and the Land of Grass began, although each day when they made camp the trees seemed a little smaller and the terrain a little rougher.

Sitting between Konoha and Iwa, Kusa's landscape was marked by characteristics of each. It was a land of rolling hills and river valleys, tree-covered but not exactly forested. Sakura thought it was pretty, but she preferred her home. In Konoha the forest felt majestic, untamed and untameable, deep and mysterious. In Kusa it just felt like a bunch of trees.

Sakura took advantage of the relatively relaxed pace of travel to work on her chakra shaping. She could produce simple weapons out of the available ground on command, and was beginning to work on changing the shapes of the weapons on the fly. It was tricky, and none of the Academy weapons kata really took advantage of the technique, but she was pretty sure that transforming a pair of tonfa into a katana in the middle of a fight-or just extending a katana by a few inches-would come in handy.

She would have liked to work on generating fire natured chakra, but the simple fact was that it would take too long to reach the point where she could use fire in combat. She would need the kind of uninterrupted meditation time that she could only get during their time off between missions-assuming Kakashi left her alone after this one. For now, her focus was on polishing up skills that would be useful immediately.

It took them a week to reach Kusagakure. Sakura was idly manipulating the form of the staff in her hands when the team crested a hill and came into sight of the village. She froze with a blade half formed on the end of her staff, astonished by the sight. Even Sasuke looked impressed, although Sakura suspected that it was only her long familiarity with her teammate that let her see it. Behind them, Kakashi chuckled.

"The Hebi river really is something, ne?" He commented.

Sakura had initially believed that the center of the valley below was covered by a massive lake, but once Kakashi spoke she could see that at the ends of the valley the "lake" narrowed into a rushing river, floating clouds of mist obscuring the view and suggesting that dangerous rapids lay just out of sight. In the center of the valley, the broad flow of the river was interrupted by a group of islands. She could see a barge making its way through the S curve of the only broad stretch of water that passed from one side of the islands to the other.

All told, Kusagakura looked to hold about as many people as Konoha, but the style was completely different. Where Konoha was dotted with trees and seemed to blend in with the surrounding forest, Kusa crouched over the river like a glittering spider, each island connected by bridges like strands of a web. A single bridge connected each side of the river to the island, and Sakura was sure that the water was full of nasty surprises for anybody who tried to walk around the official entry point.

"The largest river in the elemental countries, and by far the cheapest way to move goods from Earth Country to Fire Country." Kakashi commented. "And Kusa can choke the whole thing off any time they like. There's a reason they're the richest of the minor villages."

Kakashi led them down a series of switchbacks to the valley floor, and after a brief conversation with the guards at the bridge they were allowed into Kusagakure proper. Sakura was a little surprised when Kakashi led them to a restaurant instead of some kind of government building, but she held her tongue. After a few days on the road she wouldn't mind having some professionally cooked food for a change.

Inside, the first thing that Sakura noticed was the smell of cooking meat and spices. The restaurant was decorated nicely, in keeping with the neighborhood in which it was located. It was set up to prepare teppanyaki, as each table was set into a booth and built around an iron cooking surface. The chefs travelled from table to table and entertained their customers while they cooked, sending knives and ingredients twirling through the air as they worked. Sakura had seen more technically proficient knife work at the ninja academy, but it was still a pretty good show.

Sakura's attention was drawn to a man in the back of the restaurant as he stood up from his booth and strode towards them. She took her cue from Kakashi, who remained as calm as usual as the stranger approached and drew him into a friendly embrace.

"Kakashi Hatake, as I live and breathe." He greeted their teacher enthusiastically. "It has been too long, my friend."

"Hmm, I suppose it has." Kakashi replied, then gestured towards his team. "My students, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Kids, this is Mikio Koriwan, capo of Kusagakure."

Mikio turned to greet them, and Sakura had to control herself to keep from flinching back. As friendly as his body language and the laugh lines around his eyes might appear, his eyes were striking. For an instant Sakura felt like she was being dissected and examined by a cold intelligence that reduced her value to a simple measure of profit and loss, and that wouldn't hesitate to kill her if the numbers came out that way. Then he smiled at them, and for all she could tell he was just another kindly grandfather.

"It's hard to believe that you have students of your own, now. To think when we met, you were about their size. Every year it seems like the new recruits are younger, but I suppose I'm just getting older." Mikio said, then sighed. "But you don't want to stand around listening to an old man ramble. Please, come sit down with me, you must be starving after your trip."

The Konoha team followed as he led them towards his booth. Sakura took note as several of the restaurant's other patrons seemed to be keeping a close watch on them as they moved. It made sense if this was Koriwan's base of operations that he would have bodyguards seeded throughout.

The Kusagakure capo kept the conversation to small talk as the chef prepared a beef plate for the table. Sakura kept an eye on the chef out of habit to make sure nothing was slipped into their food, although if they really meant to poison the Konoha team it would have been added to the ingredients before they were brought to her table. Their real guarantee of safety was the presence of their sensei, as he had enough of a reputation to make anybody planning to ambush them have second thoughts.

The chef bowed and left the table once he served their food, which seemed to be the signal that it was time to talk business. Mikio explained the situation around bites.

"Over the last few months, we've seen an increase in attacks on trading caravans heading to Kusagakure." Mikio began. "In itself, a concern, but not enough to warrant calling you in. But last week the attackers got sloppy and let a survivor escape. When I debriefed him he said he saw attackers with Iwa headbands."

"A decrease in overland trade means an increase in the river trade. Of course, Iwa would never take such an aggressive action on their own, so it looks like one of the Yellows invited them in." Kakashi said. "But that would be sloppy, almost unbelievably so. They couldn't expect to keep things quiet forever. You wouldn't have called us out here if it was your own plan..."

"Ah, Kakashi, it's nice to talk to a Leaf nin who can think." Mikio said. "I suspect it was either one of the Yellows trying to make it look like a plan of mine, or one of my more ambitious subordinates making their own play. I interrogated the survivor and confirmed that he is not in on the scheme-what we really need is to bring in the attackers for a little conversation."

"So you need a capture squad-but Konoha taking down Rock nin?" Kakashi said. "I don't want to start the fourth shinobi world war here."

"Whatever orders the Rock nin are operating on, it's nothing the Tsuchikage will want to take responsibility for, I'm sure. If some Leaf nin who were never here capture some Rock nin who were never here, who's to complain?" Mikio asked. "You know the Hokage wouldn't have sent you here if your village weren't being adequately compensated for your trouble."

"Fair enough." Kakashi said, then stood, gesturing at Sasuke and Sakura to stand as well. "It'll be good training for my cute little students at least."

ooOoo

A month later, Sakura didn't feel like their mission was very good training at all. Kakashi had procured a wagon and set of oxen for them, and the team had posed as travelling merchants. The trip from Kusagakure to the edge of RiverCountry, an easy three-day lope for a ninja squad, took over a week at civilian speed. They were now on their fourth round trip.

To make matters worse, Kakashi had insisted that they maintain strict cover, imposing an absolute ban on ninja related activities. Sasuke and Sakura were forbidden from sparring, weapons practice, or even channeling chakra. She took some solace in the fact that she had finally found some common ground with Sasuke in griping about their situation, but it was a small comfort. Finally, a few days after they left Kusagakure for the fourth time, Sakura couldn't restrain herself from confronting Kakashi.

"Sensei, can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.

"Of course." Kakashi replied, setting aside the farmer's almanac he was reading. Only a well trained eye could spot the Icha Icha book tucked inside the false cover. "What's on your mind?"

"It's just... when you told us about the jutsu theft squad, it sounded like we'd be fightning new opponents and learning new techniques all the time." Sakura said. "I didn't think it would be like this, just driving a stupid cart back and forth."

"Well, unfortunately, we have to do the missions the Hokage orders us to take, not just the missions we want." Kakashi replied.

"But I don't understand why we're even doing this." Sakura said. "If Kusagakure needs somebody to spring a trap on these guys, why not use their own ninja?"

"It's hard to say. They really aren't much for straight up fights, so it could be a concern about combat power." Kakashi said. "Of course, if Mikio is worried about an internal power struggle, this reminds people that he has a relationship with me. Or if he thinks I'm planning to betray him, he could be trying to lure me into a fight where I'll be overmatched. In the end, it doesn't really matter. We'll get the job done, and it's good training for you."

"Good training?" Sakura said, upset. "We've spent this whole month like civilians. I haven't learned a new technique since we left Konoha, and our combat skills are just atrophying. How can you call this training?"

"It's training in patience." Kakashi said. "I know you think my restrictions are extreme, but we really have no idea who our opponents will be. They could have a sensor ninja, or some other means of detecting even internal chakra use. By maintaining our cover we maintain the advantage of surprise.

"You're a Konoha ninja, not just some thug who knows how to use chakra." Kakashi continued, fixing her with a level stare. "That means that in the field you will behave like a professional. You will do the right thing, even when doing the right thing is tedious. You will not jeopardize the success of the mission by indulging in a personal desire for self-improvement. Are we clear?"

While Kakashi spoke, there was a gathering of pressure in the air that made it a little difficult for Sakura to breathe. On the one hand, his use of chakra suggested that he didn't really think his restrictions were as necessary as he claimed. On the other hand, Sakura didn't want Kakashi angry at her for any reason at any time.

"We're clear, sensei." She replied, a little proud of herself for keeping her voice level.

"Good." Kakashi said. "You should be thankful to be learning this lesson now, rather than when your carelessness costs a teammate their life."

Sakura cut down on her complaining after her chastisement, renewing her commitment to patient, professional behavior. As it happened, they only had to wait two more days for their confrontation with the Iwa ambush squad.

ooOoo

Fumio Ota was an underappreciated ninja, and wasn't shy about sharing that fact with anybody who asked. The son of a prominent ninja clan in Iwagakure, Fumio experienced his first setback young, as he failed to develop the magma bloodline that made his family famous. His affinity for earth natured chakra hardly mattered in the face of such a failing, and he experienced-and complained of-ostracization and discrimination from that point onwards. Teachers unfairly marking him down in the academy, a jounin sensei who never gave him proper support, and discriminatory rulings in the chuunin exams all added up to one disgruntled genin.

One of Fumio's drinking buddies recruited him into performing a little extracurricular activity to finally gain the respect he deserved. It had been going well too, until his bad luck reared its head again, this time in the form of Sharingan Kakashi. He felt bad about being captured, but realistically even his leader would have had a hard time against the notorious Copy Nin.

Now, the night after his capture, he saw an opportunity to help his team. After a surprisingly gentle interrogation, the Leaf ninja had tied him up and set up their camp. Fortunately for him, they were sufficiently undermanned that they didn't keep a guard on him during the night. Even more fortunately, they had missed his holdout, a small twist of ninja wire woven in to his otherwise standard issue pants. Fumio carefully freed himself from his restraints and waited until the lone Konoha nin keeping watch was on the other side of the camp before making his move. Leaving a bundle of branches in his place to simulate his sleeping form, he took off into the night as quickly as he could.

The thought of attacking the Leaf team had crossed his mind-taking out Kakashi would be enough to make him a legend-but even asleep, Fumio wanted no part of a fight with the Copy Nin. Warning his leader about the presence of a Leaf hunter squad would be service enough.

It was with that thought in mind that he made a beeline back to the base camp. Once there, Fumio saw his leader in a clearing, meeting with a man he didn't know. Fumio's leader-Takao the Crusher-was a mountain of a man, famous for his strength and his "perfect defense," an incredibly dense layer of earth armor that he always carried into combat. Fumio was shocked to see Takao's body language as he was nearly cringing before the blonde teenager in a black and red clock.

Fumio put the mystery out of his mind as he hurried into the clearing to give his warning. "Boss! Grass has called in some Leaf nin to shut us down. They captured our team, but I managed to get away, so-"

"They're right behind you, you idiot." The blonde snapped, then looked into Fumio's eyes. "Takao, knock him out, we don't have time to figure out what kind of Sharingan whammy he's under."

"Yes, master." Takao replied.

Fumio was frozen in shock and had only a moment to curse his bad luck before a casual swat from Takao sent him into the darkness of unconsciousness.

ooOoo

Kakashi stepped forward into the clearing, giving an order as he did so. "You two focus on the big guy. I'll take care of blondie."

"Sharingan Kakashi." The blonde man said, sounding perfectly at ease. Sakura's stomach twisted at the implication, and she tried to reassure herself with the thought that he might just be foolishly overconfident. "I like the way you think, yeah. Takao, have fun with the kids. I have a feeling this fight is going to be a work of art."

There was a flicker of motion that Sakura couldn't really follow, then an explosion where Kakashi had been standing. At the same time, a spike of earth sprang up where the blonde man had been standing. A chain of explosions sounded as the combatants disappeared into the surrounding forest, leaving Sakura and Sasuke alone with their A-ranked opponent.

Things were not exactly proceeding as planned. After interrogating the moronic Iwa captive, they were confident that Takao was the only real heavy hitter operating in Kusa, and that Sasuke and Sakura could probably take him down if they worked together and things broke their way. Accordingly, the plan was for the two of them to confront him while Kakashi watched from the forest, ready to jump in if needed. However, Kakashi saw something he didn't like in the blonde in the strange cloak, prompting him to change the plan on the fly. Sakura could only hope he knew what he was doing.

"You are fools to think you can defeat me." Takao said, setting himself in a solid stance. "And you are led by a fool if he thinks he can defeat my master."

"Yeah, who is that guy anyways?" Sakura asked. Some ninja were surprisingly free with information during combat.

"Trash like you don't deserve to know his name." Takao replied. He stomped down with his right foot, shaking the ground enough to cause Sakura to stumble. "Now, come at me and die."

Takao easily massed twice what Sakura and Sasuke did put together. Fortunately they weren't engaged in a sumo match, but a fight to the death. Sasuke charged forward with his Sharingan active to engage their foe in hand to hand combat. Sasuke clearly outclassed Takao in terms of speed, landing a series of punches to his ribs. However, none of the body blows seemed to have any effect, and Sasuke narrowly dodged a counter attack that left a crater where it landed.

While the taijutsu battle was going on, Sakura left an illusionary clone in her original position and faded into the forest. She circled into position and waited for her opening. Sasuke continued to fail to inflict any damage on Takao, but he did seem to be irritating him by avoiding all of his counterattacks. Finally Takao overextended on a haymaker and Sakura darted out into the clearing, green chakra glowing on her palm as she brought her hand forward against his spine.

Sakura was shocked with the medical chakra dissipated before reaching Takao's body. Apparently his earth armor somehow deflected chakra based attacks. Sakura was shifting her weight to jump back from her failed attack when an elbow slammed into her gut, knocking her down. Takao spun and brough his hand down in a hammer blow, but before it could land home Sasuke was there, blocking with a kunai. Takao seemed utterly unconcerned at the blade of the kunai pressing against his wrist, and sweat was beading on Sasuke's forehead under the stress of holding him off.

"Your trickery is cute," Takao said, chuckling, "but you are no match for my power. Your leader has left you here to die."

Sakura didn't waste time replying, flipping to her feet and getting out of danger so that Sasuke could resume his tactics of avoidance instead of trying to match Takao strength for strength. She didn't dare try to escape underground against such a strong opponent who specialized in earth natured techniques. After another taijutsu exchange Sasuke disengaged and retreated to stand next to Sakura, apparently realizing the futility of his attack. He launched a couple of fireballs as he did so, but Takao didn't even bother getting out of the way. Even the fireball that enveloped his head did no damage, and the smoke it created dissolved to reveal his smiling face.

Takao's grin didn't waver, even as Sasuke crouched down and an oppressive feeling filled the clearing while a crackle of lightning appeared around his arm. The characteristic chirping sound of the Chidori echoed crazily around the clearing, making it sound like the battlefield was surrounded by a flock of birds.

"So, you're finally getting serious." Takao said. "Very well then, so will I."

With that, a set of spikes began to grow from his earth armor, giving him the appearance of a giant porcupine. A pair of blades grew from his wrists, effectively extending his reach by several feet. Preparations complete, Takao set up in a defensive stance and beckoned Sasuke forward.

Sakura threw some kunai to distract their opponent, but he simply let them bounce off his armor, keeping his full attention on Sasuke as he charged forward. There was a blur of motion and a flash of light, and when Sakura's vision cleared she saw Takao, standing a couple feet to the right of where he had been, crouched down on one knee, with the blade extending from his arm impaled straight through Sasuke's chest. He was looking at the body with a strangely contemplative expression on his face.

"It's too bad, boy, you could have been great. You tried to reach too high, too soon." Takao said. His expression shifted to one of alarm as Sasuke's body began to melt into mud and, Sakura suspected, he finally noticed that the sound of chirping birds had never stopped. "That's imposs-"

Takao was interrupted by a hand sheathed in lightning punching out through the front of his chest, as Sasuke struck home with a perfectly formed Chidori. With their opponent's spine severed and his vital organs liquefied, Sakura knew their victory was secure, and couldn't resist stepping forward for a final taunt.

"Using chidori with a clone may be impossible, but faking it actually isn't that hard." She said. "Deception and trickery came in pretty handy after all, ne?"

Takao responded with a chuckle, despite the blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. "Not bad, little girl. But what you don't realize is that I'm not only my master's most faithful servant, but also his greatest work of art."

Time seemed to slow for Sakura as she jumped backwards. Images flashed through her mind, the explosion that started out the fight, the explosions that followed Kakashi into the forest, their blonde opponent's earlier mention of "art." Sakura saw Sasuke yank his hand from Takao's chest and blur into motion away from the Iwa nin. She was bringing her hands together into the one seal she needed to perform the replacement technique when her vision was filled with a flash of light.

ooOoo

ooOoo

OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

Omake: Nin-ception

After a brief lecture on trap detection, Kakashi cut her down from the tree. Sakura righted herself as best she could in mid-air and landed on her feet with a modicum of grace. After staring at her sensei for a moment, Sakura decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while.

"Sensei, shouldn't I be learning genjutsu?" She asked. "With my chakra control I should be pretty good at it."

"Well, I am showing you some illusions that will be useful in combat, and we'll work on dispelling genjutsu." Kakashi replied. "But trying to learn true high-level offensive genjutsu would be a bad idea."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"The basic problem is that it's easier to learn how to shrug off genjutsu than it is to learn how to apply them. Even worse, a really strong opponent won't give any indication of whether they are under the genjutsu or not, so you're really rolling the dice with your follow up attack." Kakashi said. "Ninja who rely on genjutsu in combat are completely nuts."

"That's not true, Kurenai seems perfectly nice." Sakura replied. "Actually, maybe I could go ask her for some tips-"

"No!" Kakashi said, emphatically. "Absolutely not."

"What? Why?" Sakura asked.

"Right now you at least believe you have a firm grip on reality." Kakashi said. "I want to protect that. Have you heard of Samu Jankin?"

Sakura shook her head, and Kakashi continued. "He was a Konoha chuunin who had a thing for Kurenai. She told him to back off a few times, but he was pretty persistent. Finally she put him under a genjutsu-he met a girl, started a family, lived for another fifty years, and died surrounded by his grandchildren... only to wake up an hour after Kurenai put the whammy on him."

"That's awful!" Sakura said.

"That's not the worst part." Kakashi said. "A week before that happened, I had a training session with Kurenai, and she was pretty upset by my... hobbies. I'm pretty sure I've been under a genjutsu ever since, and the thing with Samu was just her rubbing my face in it."

"What-that's ridiculous!" Sakura replied. "I mean, I'm here, and I'm not part of some genjutsu. I'm a real person."

"Of course, that's exactly what an illusionary construct would say." Kakashi said, pulling his book out of his pocket and starting to read as he walked away. 


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: As always, I appreciate hearing what worked for you, what didn't work, and why.

ooOoo

Sakura opened her eyes to see that her vision was still filled with white. She began to worry for a moment that she was still on the battlefield until her nose was assaulted by the familiar tang of the antiseptics used in Konoha's hospital. Taking a deep breath, Sakura calmed down and did her best to assess her situation. She wasn't in any pain, which was either a good sign or a very bad sign. She attempted to sit up to make a visual check of her extremities, and began to panic once more when she found herself unable to move.

"Ah, careful there, Sakura." She heard Kabuto's familiar voice, and felt a cool sensation on the back of her neck. She sat up and saw Kabuto stepping back, the glow of medical chakra around his hand fading away as he did so. She was on one of the hospital's new medical tables, and a quick check of the room showed that Kakashi was the only other person there. Sakura felt a brief flash of disappointment at Sasuke's absence, followed by concern about his health.

"What-" Sakura coughed, clearing her throat before she continued. "What happened?"

"Well, I'd say you've learned a valuable lesson about taunting your enemies." Kakashi said, while Sakura gratefully accepted a glass of water from Kabuto. "But I won't be sure until the next time you're in that situation."

"I didn't expect him to blow himself up." Sakura protested.

"The key to survival in this business is to expect the unexpected." Kakashi replied.

"Tsch, fine." Sakura said, waving away the criticism. "But seriously, what happened? Is Sasuke ok? Am I ok?"

"If I may?" Kabuto asked, continuing after Kakashi gave him a nod. "Sakura, you were brought here suffering from serious injuries consistent with extreme concussive force. Fortunately Kakashi got you here quickly, and the Hokage herself participated in your healing. It has now been two days since the operation-you have been fine physically since the it was complete, but you needed to rest and recover. As to your teammate-"

"Sasuke is out training." Kakashi said.

Sakura couldn't quite keep a frown off of her face. It would have been nice if Sasuke had been considerate enough to check in on her at the hospital. She would never be-and never had been-so callous when a teammate was recovering from an injury. With an effort she put the emotion aside for now and focused on finding out how the mission had concluded.

"But what happened with the fight after the explosion? Did we win?" She asked.

Kakashi paused before replying, casting a meaningful glance at Kabuto. The medic nodded at him before excusing himself and leaving the room.

"Really, sensei?" Sakura asked. "He's the Hokage's apprentice."

"Still, the best way to keep a secret is by not telling it to other people." Kakashi said. "I hope you never have to learn that lesson the hard way... As to the rest of the battle, there's not much to tell. After Takao blew himself up, the blonde guy took off."

"He got away?" Sakura asked.

"Heh, not exactly. Actually, if he stuck around, we probably all would have died." Kakashi said. "He pretty much dictated the entire course of our fight, and when he decided he felt like leaving there wasn't much I could do about it. It's kind of embarassing, really."

Kakashi undercut the severity of his admission when he concluded by pulling out one of his little orange books and flipping it open to a bookmarked page. There was a moment of silence, broken only by the occasional giggle, before Sakura ran out of patience.

"What the hell? Who was that guy?" She asked.

"That," Kakashi said, somehow managing to produce a serious and sober tone without looking up from his book, "is a good question. The Hokage will be explaining some things to you in our briefing tomorrow."

ooOoo

"Akatsuki." Tsunade said, sighing. "It's a group of missing ninja that have been underbidding the major villages for mid-level missions over the last few years."

"The villages just let that happen?" Sasuke asked, obviously skeptical.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi were gathered in front of Tsunade's desk in the Hokage's office. Sasuke had hardly acknowledged Sakura's presence when she entered the office, and she had responded by pointedly fixing her attention away from her teammate. Tsunade looked weary under the Hokage's hat, likely due to her insistence on maintaining an active medical practice while also managing Konoha.

"Even for a major village, taking out a group of S-rank ninja is no easy feat." Tsunade explained. "Besides, groups like that usually wind up collapsing under the weight of their own egos."

"Groups like this?" Sakura asked, alarmed. It was bad enough to run into a single S-rank ninja. The idea that there could be multiple groups of them running around the elemental countries was a little terrifying.

"Sure, this isn't the first time a bunch of powerful ninja thought they could band together and change the world. Tokei-dai, Aoi Taiyou, Niwatori no Kyoudai... they all wound up taking themselves out soon enough." Tsunade said. "In the meantime, if Akatsuki wants to hire out pairs of S-rank nin for the price of a team of chunin, it's no real problem for us. But now this guy is stirring up trouble in Grass Country..."

"It could have been a personal project." Kakashi said. "There was no sign of a partner, and powerful ninja do start to develop their own little quirks and obsessions."

"Maybe." Tsunade replied. "But to me this means that either Akatsuki as a whole is trying to destabilize one of our allies, or the infighting within the group could provoke another major Shinobi World War. What a pain in the ass."

Tsunade turned and looked longingly at the sake service set on the shelf behind her, before shaking her head and reaching into a drawer beneath her desk. She pulled out a form and wrote on it briefly, signing it with a flourish and handing it over to Kakashi.

"But that's a problem for another day." Tsunade continued. "In the mean time, I am accepting Kakashi's suggestion that he be transferred away from the jutsu theft squad for the time being."

Sakura rocked back, shocked at the idea that they were losing their leader. Before she could gather her thoughts and voice her complaints, Sasuke spoke up.

"We barely survived our last mission, do you expect us to do better without Kakashi in charge?"

"Believe it or not, I send out many teams that are able to accomplish their missions even without Sharingan Kakashi around." Tsunade replied. "As chunin of Konoha you have to be able to perform in the field even without your teacher there to hold your hand."

"I have been watching you progress over these last few months," Kakashi spoke up, his tone unusually serious, "and I'm confident you can handle yourselves."

He paused for a moment in thought, before flashing them a smile and a thumbs up. "Just don't pick any fights with S-rank ninja, and you should be fine."

"But, a two man team," Sakura said, finally recovering from her shock and latching on to any argument she could make against that move, "that would be dangerously under strength."

"We will of course be adding a third member to lead your team." Tsunade said. "He's transferring over from ANBU, so I expect things to continue running smoothly."

Tsunade gestured towards the door, and a black-haired shinobi walked into the room. Sakura was surprised to see that he was around the same age as she and Sasuke. He had pale skin, and delicate features. Something about his placid demeanor and friendly expression set off warning bells in the back of her mind.

"My name is Sai." He said, before smiling and bowing in their direction. Sakura noted that both actions conformed precisely to the rules of etiquette, and both were performed in a rather mechanical fashion. "Please treat me kindly."

ooOoo

Sakura followed Sasuke after they were dismissed from the briefing. Her taciturn teammate didn't say anything to her or do anything to acknowledge her presence. They traveled together in silence until Sakura moved to follow him into the Uchiha district, at which point she found herself in a face to face confrontation.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"We need to talk." Sakura said. She was tired of tiptoeing around Sasuke and his moods. Confronting him now might make things worse in the short run, but she just couldn't stand the current situation any longer.

"We have nothing to talk about." Sasuke said. His expression may as well have been carved from stone, but Sakura could tell from the tension in his stance that Sasuke was agitated.

"This is exactly what we have to talk about!" Sakura exclaimed. "You're so angry all the time."

Sasuke said nothing, and did not move from his position. Sakura gave up on waiting for him to explain himself after a moment.

"I've been nothing but nice to you. I even stopped asking you out for dates." She said. "And still you give me the cold shoulder. It doesn't make sense."

Sasuke snorted at her statement, and Sakura glared at him in response.

"Well?" She asked. "You want to explain to me what's going on?"

"As if you don't know." Sasuke said, shaking his head. He seemed to lose interest in keeping Sakura out of his neighborhood, and turned to walk farther into the district. Sakura followed behind, unwilling to let this go.

As she followed him, Sakura took a look around. She had, of course, heard of the Uchiha district-the area of Konoha set aside for the use of the Uchiha clan, and now occupied only by its last surviving member-but it was something different to see in person. She could almost feel the weight of tradition pressing down on her from all sides. If Sasuke had grown up in this kind of environment, she could understand why he was so driven. For the first time, Sakura was grateful that her father was nothing more than a successful baker and her mother a happy housewife. She had always been resentful of the advantages enjoyed by the clan kids, but walking through the silent neighborhood made her appreciate the cheerful memories of her civilian childhood.

Sasuke led her to a training ground, where he settled into a simple round of target practice, ignoring her presence. After he had been at it for five minutes Sakura came to the conclusion that he really was just going to wait for her to go away. She had other plans.

"Are you going to explain this to me?" Sakura asked. "I have no idea what I did that made you so mad."

Sasuke paused in his throwing practice, turning to glare at her. Sakura met his gaze calmly, refusing to look away. After a moment he seemed to come to a decision. He looked over her should into the distance as he began to speak.

"You remember my ambition?" He asked.

"Yes," Sakura said, nodding. "To rebuild your clan and kill a certain man."

"The man I must kill," Sasuke continued, "murdered my entire family. In skill, he stands as far above Kakashi as Kakashi is above us."

Sakura chewed her lip as she processed his words. Training to kill such an opponent would be the work of a lifetime.

"Maybe... maybe you should rebuild your clan, first," Sakura said, blushing slightly and looking down at her hands, "then worry about revenge."

"The man could return at any time-I won't be safe until he's dead." Sasuke said, and then his expression hardened. "Even if that weren't an issue, I will not have any of my children born under the same sun that shines on that man."

Sakura shivered slightly at the expression on Sasuke's face. Gone was the sullen anger he had borne towards her over the last few months. Now she was seeing the pure determination and resolve that had driven him to the top of the class, chasing a phantom. It was a humbling thing to witness-unfortunately, it still didn't answer her question.

"But what does this have to do with me?" She asked.

Sasuke snapped out of his distraction and fixed her with an angry glare before continuing. "Given my situation, the usual path of development was too slow. That's why I decided to train under somebody who was more willing to... push the envelope."

"Orochimaru." Sakura whispered, shocked as she put it together.

"Exactly." Sasuke said, nodding. "He is obsessed with the sharingan, and with finding new bodies to take over for his own use. He would train me, working to make me strong enough to serve as his ultimate host, while I tried to become even stronger. At some point he would be satisfied with his efforts and try to take my body. At the end of that day, one of us would be an S-ranked ninja, and the other would be dead."

Sasuke paused for a moment, lost in thought. Sakura stared at him in horror as she tried to decipher what he had been thinking.

"That plan..." She said, unsure how to continue.

"That plan, of course," Sasuke interrupted, "was blown to hell when you kept me from leaving Konoha."

"That plan was insane!" Sakura said. "The chances of failure... the chance of death..."

"To be a shinobi is to walk with death." Sasuke said. "You know this. I knew the odds when I made my choice. It was the only way to reach a level where I could hope to succeed in time to... but it doesn't matter now. You took that choice away from me."

"Good!" Sakura exclaimed. "What, did you expect me to apologize? I took a crazy choice away from you, and I'm proud of it. Even if you aren't quite as strong as you could be, you're alive, and sane. And you have teammates! Who says you have to fight this man on your own?"

Sasuke laughed at that, a cold, derisive laughter that sent a chill down Sakura's spine.

"Teammates?" sasuke asked. "In a fight with that man, you'd be nothing more than a hostage. I would need more than a glorified decoy to help me-"

Sakura's hand flashed out to slap Sasuke across the face almost without conscious thought. He leaned back out of reach, then stepped forward into a quick two punch combination. Sakura dodged to the side of the first punch, and deflected the follow-up. She replied with a knee strike aimed at Sasuke's stomach, which he recovered in time to catch in both arms, before shoving her away from him.

Sakura recovered her balance and paused to take stock of the situation. Her training with Kakashi had apparently been of more use than she had realized at the time-although Sasuke was still faster than her, she was now able to see and react to his movements-unfortunately, Sasuke was still faster, stronger, and had a longer reach than she did.

Sakura acted to remedy one of those problems as Sasuke attacked with a roundhouse kick. She bent over backwards to avoid his attack, placing her hands against the ground as she did so. When she straightened back up, she was holding a staff overhead that she brought down towards Sasuke in a mighty chop.

Sasuke caught the attack on both arms, grunting at the impact. When Sakura flexed her chakra through the staff to send the end of it whipping down towards him, Sasuke moved his head to the side almost before it began to move. Starting in surprise, she glanced up and saw that he had activated the sharingan. The momentary pause was all the opening he needed to press the attack.

Despite the advantage of having a weapon against an unarmed opponent, Sakura was immediately put on the defensive. Her every attack was anticipated and led to a stinging counterattack, while even a purely defensive posture allowed Sasuke to sneak in the occasional body blow. Finally, Sakura backpedaled away from his latest combination and opened up some distance before putting a last ditch plan into action.

Sakura swung the staff down into an uppercut, a strike patently incompatible with the length of the weapon. As she had hoped, Sasuke anticipated the opening that would be created when the staff struck the ground and moved to take advantage. That left him wide open when the staff smoothly passed through the ground-aided by her chakra, and came up between his legs in a vicious strike. At the last second Sasuke was able to bend his leg slightly and absorb most of the force of the blow on his inner thigh, but she saw an unmistakable shudder of pain race through his body on impact.

Sakura's moment of triumph was short lived, as Sasuke responed by drawing a kunai and advancing towards her with blood in his eye. She was as shocked as he was when both of them were suddenly taken to the ground by an unknown attacker. Sakura looked up from her position flat on her back to see that she was pinned to the ground by a dog made out of... ink? A glance to the side showed that Sasuke was in a similar predicament.

"Now, now, is this any way for teammates to treat each other?" Sai asked, drawing her attention to where he stood, on the edge of the training ground. He was smiling, but his eyes were as flat and cold as ever. "Surely we should all be friends?"

Sasuke responded by spitting a fireball directly up at the wolf pinning him to the ground, standing as it dissolved into a shower of ink. Sakura followed suit, dragging a palm covered in medical chakra across the wolf's neck. She stood up and watched as Sasuke marched forward to glare at Sai.

"I treat people how I want." Sasuke said. "Don't think you're better than me because you landed one cheap shot."

"Don't worry Sasuke," Sai said, his smile unchanging, "that's not why I think I'm better than you."

Their new teammate disappeared in a puff of smoke before either of them could say anything in response.

"Bastard." Sasuke muttered.

Sakura couldn't help it. After the emotional roller coaster she had been through today, seeing Sasuke pout-there really wasn't any other word for it-pushed her over the edge. She began to giggle, then chuckle, and finally bent over laughing.

"What-" Sasuke asked, but Sakura held up her hand as she got the giggles under control.

"You... Naruto..." Was all she was able to get out, but she could see that Sasuke understood what she was getting at.

"I," he said, putting on his most stoic air, "am nothing like that idiot."

Seeing the small but genuine smile that appeared on Sasuke's face after his declaration made Sakura feel like everything was going to be all right.

ooOoo

Sakura showed up at the Uchiha compound bright and early the next day. While Sasuke wasn't exactly pleased to see her, he did hear her out on her proposal that they train together. The fight they had just had showed, to her mind at least, that they were evenly matched enough to learn from sparring from each other. Sakura wasn't sure if Sasuke agreed with her, or if he just figured that she wouldn't leave without a fight one way or the other. Either way, a new tradition of morning spars was born that left Sakura with some bumps and bruises and a much better feeling about her team.

Sakura also spent a significant amount of time training on her own, focused primarily on her chakra control. It was her one area of real strength, so she wanted to get the most benefit out of it that she could. She really wanted to eliminate that last hand sign from the replacement technique, but even she couldn't stay focused on a single technique for more than an hour or so at a time. The rest of the time she spent refining her earth based techniques and working on producing fire natured chakra.

Sakura had mastered many techniques that allowed her to misdirect opponents, but very few that would let her put an opponent down. What was worse, her direct combat techniques were very short range, which was a dangerous place to be with people like Rock Lee running around. Also, while she didn't share Naruto's obsession with explosions, it would be cool to be able to spit fireballs at people.

Sasuke proved surprisingly helpful as a sparring partner. Though he still wasn't particularly nice, he was no longer so thoroughly cold and stand-offish. He offered advice when he saw something she could improve on, and he had a depth of experience with weapons that made him a particularly valuable asset in developing her "transforming weapon style" of fighting built around shaping weapons with earth chakra. Of course, his sharingan eyes let him anticipate changes to her weapons before they happened, giving him a major advantage in their spars. Sasuke claimed it let her simulate fighting against a much faster opponent, but Sakura suspected he just liked to rack up decisive victories.

Over the course of the month they built up, not exactly a friendship, but a level of cameraderie that had been sorely lacking during their time on the jutsu theft squad. Sakura was even able to finagle a couple of fire techniques out of Sasuke, though the endeavor ultimately proved a little depressing. Even at a fairly efficient conversion ratio, producing a decent size grand fireball drained most of her chakra capacity. She could crank out a second one, but the effort would leave her pretty much unconscious on her feet. Sasuke, on the other hand, could throw them around like kunai.

Rather than dwell on her lack of chakra, however, Sakura focused on turning her chakra control into a practical advantage. She treasured the memory of the first time she turned the tables on Sasuke by using a seal-free replacement, turning certain defeat into overwhelming victory. Although Sasuke didn't repeat the mistake of ignoring the tell-tall chakra flare of an incoming replacement because her hands were full, Sakura knew that anybody who she met in real combat would not get a similar chance to learn from their mistakes.

All in all, it was a much more cheerful pair of Team 7 alumni that met up with their new commander to leave on their mission. Sakura was a little worried about the loss in combat power they suffered with Kakashi's departure, but she was also hopeful about their new leader. Sai seemed relatively composed and normal, and she was curious what it would be like to work under somebody who wasn't as eccentric as her jounin sensei.

ooOoo

Hideki Ishida ran through the fields of Grass Country. He hoped he was running toward Amegakure and not toward the unforgiving mountains of Iwagakure, but at the moment he was more focused on what he was running from than what he was running to.

Hideki never was much of a planner. A brilliant technique developer and solid tactical mind, yes, but not a real long term thinker. His impulsive nature had lead him into an affair with his teammate's wife and then, when he was caught, with a dead friend and a line across his forehead protector. Ever since then he lived from day to day, mostly working to keep as much space as possible between himself and people who were trying to kill him. Right now that meant running as hard as he could away from the team of Rock ninja on his tail.

His running briefly came to an end as he broke through a line of trees that concealed a steep dropoff into a deep ravine. He felt a moment of shock as he flew through the air, landing in an uncontrolled tumble that a judicious application of chakra turned into a controlled tumble just as he reached level ground.

A quick look around showed that the situation was grim. The steep sides of the ravine were no obstacle to anybody who had mastered the tree climbing exercise, but the bare dirt of the slopes offered no protection for a ninja on the run. Hideki's options were further reduced when a pair of black-clad figures landed on the floor of the ravine in front of him and squared up for a fight. It looked like he was done running.

ooOoo

Up above, hidden behind the trees at the edge of the ravine, a trio of Konoha nin watched the fight going on below. Sakura had a look of open fascination on her face as she strained to take in the action below. Sai's expression was as bland as ever. Sasuke's expression was similarly blank, but the whirling tomoe of his activated sharingan betrayed his interest in the battle taking place.

"I wasn't sure we could pull it off," Sakura said, voice pitched low to avoid any chance of being overheard, "but it's a lot more fun to watch new techniques when they aren't aimed at me."

The technique theft squad had run across Hideki Ishida's camp site several days earlier, surprisingly close to the border with Rock Country. Rather than launch a straightforward attack, Sai had Sakura and Sasuke shadow their quarry while he went off on his own. It took him two days to find a team of Rock hunter ninja, at which point they put their plan into effect.

Sakura and Sasuke transformed into reasonable facsimiles of the Rock team Sai described, and began chasing Hideki. In the mean time, Sai transformed into a copy of the missing nin and lead the Rock team a merry chase. Working out the timing for the meetup had been tricky, but in Sakura's opinion the whole effort was worth it to be able to watch their quarry go all out without having to put herself in harm's way.

Sai grunted in acknowledgement of the compliment, and the trio resumed watching the fight in silence. Sakura had at first found Sai's all business all the time attitude a refreshing change from Kakashi's antics, and although it was starting to wear on her a little bit, it was nice to know that he was completely focused on accomplishing their mission. Down below the missing nin was weaving through a barrage of kunai and shuriken, launching a mud bullet that collided with a log left behind by a Rock nin's substitution technique. Sakura was surprised when the log burst into flame.

"Was that a multi-element technique?" She asked. "I didn't think Ishida had a bloodline."

"Not a bloodline." Sasuke commented without taking his eyes off the battle. "It's some kind of super-heated mud technique. I can copy it."

The trio continued to watch as the fight drew to a close. Somewhat to Sakura's surprise, the Rock nin were able to subdue the missing nin without killing him.

Sai stood up once the fight ended, then stepped forward. He looked like he was about to leap down into the ravine, but checked himself and turned to address his team.

"Well, that was fun." Sai said. "Time to go kill them all."

Sai spoke with the same tone of voice most people would use in ordering groceries, so it took a moment for Sakura to realize what he had said. When the penny dropped, she bit back a surprised yelp and instead grabbed Sai by the collar and yanked him towards her.

"What? Are you crazy?" She asked, her voice quiet but intense. "Killing missing nin is one thing, but we can't just start slaughtering Rock ninja."

"We have no choice." Sai replied, unruffled. "Once they interrogate the target they will learn that they have been tricked, which will increase the chance that Rock will deduce our existence. Secrecy is our primary objective."

"They never saw us." Sakura replied. "They won't know-"

"They don't have to know." Sasuke interrupted. "Remember what Kakashi taught us: a suspicious enemy is a dangerous enemy."

Sakura chewed her lip, frustrated. It was one thing to kill a hardened criminal, it was something else entirely to kill a ninja in good standing with another village, a ninja who had never done anything wrong other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Looking past Sai, she saw that the Rock team had moved up out of the ravine, setting up camp on the other side. It looked like they were getting ready for a field interrogation.

"We don't really need to kill all of them... just prevent them from conducting an interrogation, right?" Sakura asked. "And make sure they never see you guys?"

"What are you getting at?" Sai asked. He had been around Sakura long enough to learn that her ideas were worth hearing out.

"I'm thinking we can finally take advantage of all those stupid rumors Kakashi has been spreading." Sakura replied. "Can you draw something that flies?"

ooOoo

Learning to fight in the forest forced ninja of the Leaf to develop the habit of looking up. Rock ninja, trained in their mountain home, developed a stronger habit of checking the ground below. Of course, in the relatively open grassland in which the Rock team was making camp, even the most paranoid ninja wouldn't spend much time watching out for aerial assaults. At least, that was what they would tell the review board.

A thin whistling sound from above was the only warning, and before any of the Rock nin could react there was a tremendous crash. The nin in charge of interrogation was thrown back by the force of the impact, and a cloud of dust rose up around the location of their prisoner. After a moment the dust cleared to reveal a pink haired girl with a Konoha forehead protector, crouched over the body of the ill-fated Hideki Ishida. She stood and tossed off a cheerful salute before melting into the ground.

Across the ravine, Sakura smiled, pleasantly surprised at the durability of her clone. She hadn't expected it to hold together long enough to make it underground before dispersing, and she didn't envy the Rock ninja the task of figuring out exactly what had happened.

ooOoo

Back in the village, Sakura found herself thrust into the unfamiliar role of public speaking shortly after their return. She had been fascinated by the multi-element technique ever since Sasuke demonstrated it for the first time, using half of his chakra to create a ball about the size of his fist. She still remembered the fierce pride she felt when she finally cracked the secret of the technique. What caught her by surprise was the enthusiastic reaction of the Hokage when the reported in, which ultimately led to this gathering.

Sakura stood in the center of Team Seven's usual training ground, facing a loose gathering of ninja. She recognized the examiner from the second round of the chuunin exam, and of course, Kakashi and the Hokage, but the other four observers were people she did not know. Considering that attendance at this little gathering was only by invitation of the Hokage, they were likely pretty high up in the village hierarchy.

She took a deep breath to settle her nerves as she surveyed the group before her one more time. Kakashi gave her a wink as her glance passed over his face, which she decided to take as a sign to begin.

"As you all know, we were fortunate enough to run across a Rock hunter team subduing a missing nin." Sakura said. Several of the members of her audience quirked up the side of their mouths in appreciation, the ninja equivalent of polite laughter. "The first thing I wanted to show you guys was the capture technique they used, if I could have a volunteer?"

"I'll help you out." Anko announced, skipping forward. She clutched her hands together at the waist and fluttered her eyelashes at Sakura. "Please treat me kindly, professor."

Sakura pushed down with the ease of long practice the flash of jealousy aroused by the effect of Anko's pose on her... assets. Clearing her throat, she kept her tone professional.

"It's really a variant on some techniques we've seen before." Sakura said. Forming a hand seal, she channeled a significant amount of chakra into the ground, liquefying the ground beneath Anko's feet. The special jounin only sank into the ground about half an inch before she channeled chakra into her feet, stabilizing her footing.

"I have to say, this doesn't seem too dangerous, prof-oof" Anko said, rudely interrupted by the dirt that leapt up off the ground, encasing her in a sphere of earth. After a moment, her head popped out of the prison, but it was clear that Sakura was in control.

"As you can see, once the user has super-saturated the ground with their chakra, it allows them to use earth techniques with unusual speed." Sakura said, smiling sweetly at her test subject. "Depending on how much chakra your opponent has to spare, they could turn the whole battlefield into one big booby trap, so be careful."

Sakura formed another hand seal, and the sphere of earth receded, leaving Anko standing free on solid ground once more. She was also perfectly clean, which Sakura took some pride in both as a demonstration of her kind nature and of her perfect chakra control.

"This next technique is the reason you're all here. We picked it up from the missing nin, who must have been some kind of genius." Sakura said. "For this one, I'll use the straw dummy."

The technique still required every bit of control Sakura could muster, so she formed the full series of six hand seals before spitting a ball of mud at the dummy. Her audience looked unmoved until the dummy burst into flame, causing more than a few raised eyebrows.

"As you can see, it's a poor man's combined element technique. The advantage is that no bloodline is required to perform it." Sakura said. "In theory, it could also allow for any combination of elements to be fused together. The disadvantage is that the chakra control requirements are pretty extreme."

"Hey, hey, show me those hand signs again. I bet I can pull it off." Anko interjected. "My teachers always said I had a talent for setting things on fire."

Sakura kept her face composed as she demonstrated the hand signs and instructed Anko to channel both earth and fire chakra simultaneously. If she felt a warm glow of satisfaction when the technique blew up a few feet from Anko's face, she kept it well hidden. Besides, she couldn't help feeling some sympathy for the special jounin, when she had experienced the same thing during the first week she spent trying to piece the technique together.

"Hey! What's the trick?" Anko asked indignantly as she wheeled to face Sakura.

"What direction was the earth chakra spinning?" Sakura asked.

Anko looked puzzled by the question, as well she might. The process of combining physical and spiritual energies imparted a natural spin to the resulting chakra. The direction of the spin was as inherent to a given ninja as their eye color, and was usually considered about that relevant to performing a technique. Sure, when you were creating a spinning chakra construct it was easier to get it moving along with the natural spin of your chakra, but a heated mud ball was nobody's idea of a drilling technique.

"My chakra naturally rotates clockwise." Anko said after her momentary pause.

"Well, then all you need to do is get some fire chakra that's rotating counter-clockwise." Sakura said.

She could feel the added intensity in the observation of the watching crowd, and watched as Anko focused her gaze on her face, looking for any sign of deception. After a moment, an expression that Sakura might almost interpret as respect appeared in her eyes.

"So how do you get your chakra spinning in two different directions at the same time?" Anko asked.

Sakura let a small smile appear on her face as she replied.

"Practice."

ooOoo 


	9. Chapter 9

Hey, guess who has two thumbs and is still writing... this guy! As always, I appreciate any comments and criticism. I especially like to hear what worked for you, what didn't, and why.

ooOoo

The trees in Grass Country may not have measured up to the mythical forests surrounding Konoha, but to a genin from Iwa on her first mission out of the country, they were an impressive change from her homeland. Natsumi Eda admired the landscape as she set of series of traps around the perimeter of her team's camp site for the night. The traps were designed to make enough noise that an intruder wouldn't be able to catch them by surprise-it wouldn't do to put up a lethal trip wire where some civilian could blunder into it.

When she finished up and returned to her team, she heard them well before the camp site came into view. Apparently her teammates were bickering again. Natsumi suppressed a sigh and hurried back into the camp. Sometimes she thought her team would never fit together well enough to be called a true team.

Hiroshi was a clanless orphan, allowed to enroll in the Ninja Academy only because Iwagakure allowed all who applied to take a semester of instruction. He threw himself into his studies, and from his second year until graduation he was consistently on top of his class. His skills and good looks had earned the admiration of many of the kunoichi in his class, but Natsumi had to admit that his no-nonsense attitude made him hard to take at times.

Daiki was the polar opposite. Short where Hiroshi was tall, broad where Hiroshi was lean, and carefree and good natured as a popular entertainer. He was also a semi-distant nephew of the Tsuchikage, and faster and stronger than anybody with his body shape should be. He was probably the second best pure fighter in their class, and it was only his lazy nature and total disinterest in anything resembling school work that had resulted in his ranking at the bottom of the class.

Natsumi herself was, well, average. She considered herself average-looking, other than the bright blonde hair that she currently had tucked away in a bun under a concealing headscarf. She had scored near the middle of the class in both the physical and academic tests, and her chakra capacity was nothing to write home about. She wanted to succeed as a kunoichi to make her father proud, but she was starting to despair of ever finding a niche in which she truly excelled.

Such long term concerns were far from her mind as she stormed into the campsite, grabbed Daiki by his earlobe, and dragged him away from his teammate.

"Ow, ow! Hey, Natsumi, what's up?" He asked, cheerfully oblivious as always.

"I can't believe you two!" She replied, glaring at both of them. "Starting a fight when we're trying to stay hidden... how irresponsible can you get?"

"Come on, if it was that bad, sensei would have said something." Daiki replied, gesturing at the prone form of their sensei.

Shigeo Hino was something of a mystery to Natsumi. The man was a legend, the "Trapster of Iwa," a hunter nin who never lost a target. He was also incredibly lackadaisical in his day to day habits, and had yet to put his team through anything resembling advanced ninja training. Natsumi was still waiting for the day when he stopped giving them stupid sayings like "search for the riddle hidden inside the mystery" and started taking them seriously. At the moment, he was stretched out on a rock, apparently absorbed in stargazing.

"Are you really just going to keep doing stupid things until sensei tells you not to?" She asked, keeping her voice down but still doing her best to convey her anger. "We're in a foreign country, and your shouting match could have given away our position!"

"Hey, hey, it's just Grass." Daiki replied. "It's practically part of Iwa. Besides, even if they do find us, what are they going to do? Write an angry letter? You know how those guys are."

"Well, they might ask their friends from Konoha to come check you out." The voice came from outside the camp, and all of the Iwa genin jumped in surprise. They relaxed when the speaker came out into view-a girl, only a few years older than them, with bright pink hair and a cheerful smile on her face. Natsumi happened to be facing their sensei, though, and noticed that while he didn't react as much as his genin had to the mysterious voice, he hadn't let down his guard at all when the girl presented herself. The combination of pink hair and a Konoha forehead protector tugged at something in Natsumi's memory, but she couldn't put her finger on exactly what.

"That seems like a bit of an overreaction when ninja from one country visit their neighbor." Shigeo commented, his voice calm but his hands subtly conveying the "stand ready" sign to his team.

"Well, maybe, but under the treaty of Kannabi Bridge, you really are supposed to register all missions with Kusagakure." The girl replied. "I happened to be in the area and they asked me to come see what was going on. You guys really weren't very subtle about crossing the border."

"Hmm, we'll have to work on that." Shigeo replied. "Fortunately for us, the treaty provides an exception for the pursuit of missing nin. I have our bounty papers here..."

At the girl's nod, he slowly reached into his flak jacket and pulled out a scroll before gently tossing it over. She opened it up and after a moment started chuckling.

"So little Fumio is pissing people off again. I wondered where he had scurried off to." She said, before pausing a moment in thought. "I don't suppose you've been tracking his movements southwest?"

Shigeo nodded, and she frowned briefly before continuing. "I've been tracking down a little missing nin get together in that area. Some stupid little village hidden in the rice paddy. It's going to be a little dangerous... I better stick with you guys to make sure your kids don't get themselves killed."

Their sensei seemed to be searching for a diplomatic response when Daiki jumped in. "You, protect us? That's ridiculous! We don't have time to babysit some stupid tree-hugger tag-along!"

Hiroshi, who normally would have disagreed with anything Daiki said on general principles, instead took a spot at his left shoulder and nodded. Natsumi stood at his left shoulder, arms crossed, and glared at the Konoha kunoichi. She was used to getting casual disrespect from older ninja in her hometown, but she didn't have to take that kind of thing from some foreign girl who was barely older than her.

Natsumi was feeling some pride at the moment of team unity that vanished when she saw their sensei. His normal lackadaisical manner had vanished, and he looked tense as a drawn bow string, eyes darting back and forth between the foreign kunoichi and his genin charges, and Natsumi suddenly realized how exposed they were, standing on the other side of the fire. If this really was a serious opponent, they could be in trouble. She was just starting to get really worried when the girl threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh, you're just so cute when you say that." She said, catching her breath, before catching Shigeo's eye. "Relax, sensei, I'm not about to murder your students just for saying something stupid."

"That's not exactly what your bingo book entry says, Miss Haruno." He replied.

"Tsch, just because you write a stupid rumor down in a book doesn't make it true. If I killed everybody who said something stupid to me I would have started a war by now." Sakura replied, waving a hand dismissively, before fixing him with a serious look. "You really are walking into more than a one man capture operation, here, and I'd feel better about it if we coordinated our activities."

"Wait, you're Sakura Haruno?" Natsumi asked, finally recovering from her shock. She had once taken an afternoon to read through the bingo book in an attempt to find a role model to guide her ninja career. She remembered reading with morbid curiosity about the bloody path Sakura Haruno had carved through Grass Country. It wasn't exactly the reputation she wanted for herself, but there was no doubt that Haruno was a force to be reckoned with.

"The only Sakura Haruno that I know of." Sakura replied. "Why?"

Natsumi continued speaking before her brain could catch up with her mouth. "It's just, I thought you'd be taller. I mean-"

"No, no, it's ok. You probably have the same illustrator that we do. All the kunoichi kind of look the same, right?" Sakura asked, making an exaggerated cupping motion in front of her chest. "I get that a lot."

ooOoo

The Konoha kunoichi accompanied them for their next few days of travel. Every evening she would vanish, and every morning she would appear by the fire, cooking breakfast.

Daiki and Hiroshi had been skeptical upon hearing about Sakura's exploits, but they had at least agreed to obey their sensei's unusually serious order about not provoking the foreign nin. Mostly they accomplished this by staying out of her way. That tended to leave Natsumi as Sakura's closest travelling companion, which was also in accord with their sensei's plans. He had explained to her that Iwa's information on the Konoha nin primarily consisted of secondhand rumors, and this was an excellent opportunity to learn about a potential enemy of the village in a non-violent setting. He had told her not to try to be sneaky about it, just to attempt to build a rapport with Sakura and attempt to find out a little about her background.

Natsumi found the foreign nin surprisingly easy to get along with. Sakura proved to be a veritable wellspring of useful tips and tricks for a kunoichi in the field, and she seemed completely untroubled by the fact that they came from villages that had been at war with each other within living memory. Unfortunately, any questions about her personal life or her actual mission history were always deflected or responded to with vague non-answers (seriously, what did it even mean to get lost on the road of life?). Natsumi didn't see any cracks in her facade until the third day they had been travelling together.

"Ne, Sakura, when are you going to introduce us to your teammates?"

"Oh," Sakura said, "they're back in Konoha."

"What?" Natsumi asked, surprised. "They sent you out to another country by yourself?"

"Well," Sakura said, scratching the back of her head a little sheepishly, "I'm not exactly on a mission right now. This is more like vacation time."

"A vacation where you hunt down missing nin? Really?"

"I really don't like missing nin." Sakura's expression hardened, and Natsumi had the feeling that she was reliving a dark memory. Then Sakura smiled, and the moment passed. "Besides, everybody has to have a hobby, right?"

Natsumi nodded, happy to leave the subject, and made a mental note not to accept any more special assignments from her sensei. A few moments later, the two were cheerfully discussing the finer points of trimming split ends with a kunai.

ooOoo

After a few more days of travel the group reached the outskirts of a nameless farming village deep in the heart of Grass Country. Shigeo made a quick scouting trip into town to confirm the presence of the missing nin, and they decided to camp for the night so that they could rest up before beginning their assault.

The problem they faced was fairly straightforward. Missing nin generally came in two types: the ones everybody had heard of were the terrifying S-ranked demigods who made their own way in the world and lived by their own rules, too powerful to be brought to justice by any reasonable exertion of effort by a hidden village. However, by far the majority of missing nin were simple malcontents, criminals and washouts who were unable to conform to the requirements of life as an active duty ninja of a hidden village. This second group lived in a constant state of fear-though their abilities outclassed any resistance that purely civilian law enforcement was able to bring to bear, they made for relatively easy pickings for bounty hunters and hunter nin.

From time to time, a group of these weaker missing nin would get the bright idea to band together for mutual protection. They would most often take over some small town somewhere and sometimes even style themselves as a hidden village, describing their protection rackets as "missions" and the like. Unfortunately for such groups, even a large band of weak ninja is no match for any competent hunter team. That was where Team Shigeo and Sakura came in.

Iwa's best intelligence was that Fumio Ota, their initial target, would rate out as a highly competent genin or a barely competent chuunin with most hidden villages-an ideal target for a rookie team's first hunter mission. After talking things over with Sakura, it looked like Fumio and one or two other similarly strong nin were in charge of a group of twenty or thirty other missing nin, most of whom would barely qualify as genin.

The whole group together wouldn't pose much of a threat to a jounin like Shigeo, but trying to capture them all while making sure his genin didn't get hurt would have been a little challenging. With Sakura's help, the mission should be risk free.

They decided to go with a simple plan. The missing nin had taken over what used to be the home of the mayor of the town, a solidly constructed two story building that didn't possess any side windows or exits. Accordingly, the next morning, after giving Shigeo and her teammates time to circle around and set up watch over the rear, Natsumi found herself trailing Sakura as the Konoha kunoichi boldly strode up the walk to the front door of the house and the three missing nin standing guard.

Natsumi had been a little leery at being left alone with a foreign nin, however friendly she might appear, but her sensei decided to give her an early morning pep talk. He had explained that they really did need an experienced ninja covering both exits, and that Sakura would know that allowing Natsumi to die would cause a major diplomatic incident between their villages. So really, there wasn't any chance of that happening unless Sakura decided to kill all four of them and blame it on the missing nins, but that seemed unlikely. It wasn't completely reassuring, but it was nice that he had at least thought through the problem.

Watching the lead guard stride down the porch to confront Sakura, Natsumi was suddenly struck by another fear-was it possible they were overmatched? Sakura was supposed to be strong, but the guard towered over her, and looked to outmass her by three to one.

"Stop right there, little girl. This house is off limits to anybody who ain't with Fumio." The man instructed, before looking her up and down. "Come back in a few years and you might just get an invite, though."

Sakura stopped and smiled politely at the man. There was a flash of motion that Natsumi wasn't able to follow, and a kunai appeared buried up to the hilt in the throat of one of the two men standing back at the porch. With a roar, their leader struck out with his sword, impaling the kunoichi. Natsumi started in shock, just starting to process the idea of fighting for her life when the illusion dispelled, revealing the third guard in Sakura's place.

The swordsman was still staring at his friend's body when Sakura walked up behind him and ran her hand along the back of his neck. His limbs collapsed like a puppet that had just had it's strings cut, and he remained standing only due to the strong grip Sakura had on his neck. She then bent over, grabbed another handhold at the seat of his pants, and with a deceptively gentle motion sent his body arcing up and through the second story window facing the courtyard.

"That ought to get things started." Sakura said, clasping her hands together with a satisfied air. "No ponit wasting time talking to trash like that."

Natsumi said nothing, staring at the other girl in shock. She had been trained in violence, but had never seen death dealt out so casually. She was busy reevaluating her impression over a girl she thought she knew when that girl smiled at her and seemed to disappear just as the door burst open and a missing nin came charging out.

Natsumi could see the exact moment that his eyes locked onto her forehead protector and the man altered course to take her out before he fled. Some part of her noted that he was wearing an Iwa forehead protector with a line scratched through it, and wondered if he wanted some kind of personal revenge or if she was just an obstacle on his path to safety. In either case, he had a kunai out and was moving to plant it in her rib cage.

He was telegraphing the blow from halfway across the yard, and to her adrenaline-fuelled senses he seemed to be moving in slow motion. Natsumi reacted as she had been trained, side-stepping the blow and slashing her own kunai up and across the throat as he went by. The whole time she was hyper-alert for a trap, but nothing went wrong as her slash struck home. It was such an Academy-perfect takedown that she turned slightly to face where the instructor usually stood, half-expecting to be awarded a point. Instead, she saw the man who had attacked her flopping around on the ground, desperately trying to draw breath as blood sheeted down his body from the gash across his neck.

She was so shocked by the sight that she didn't react to the kick that struck her side and sent her tumbling to the ground. She stared dimly up at the figure standing over her with a sword raised to finish her off. Before he could strike home, there was a blur, and his body went flying away as Sakura now stood in front of her, looking down at her with concern.

"Hey, you did a good job with the first one, but you have to keep your head in the game here." Sakura said, then looked at her again and sighed. She formed a hand sign and called a clone up from the ground, then knelt down. Natsumi saw the clone subdue one missing nin before Sakura caught her eye.

"Look, I know the first time can be kind of a shock." Sakura said, before she reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "But guys like that, when there are no other ninja around, they're untouchable. The kind of things they do in small towns like this one... You just have to learn to see the people you're protecting, not just the people you're fighting."

Anything further she was going to say was cut off when her clone was immolated by a stream of lava. Sakura stood and turned to face the source of the attack, a weaselly looking man standing in the doorway of the gang's headquarters.

"I see you've learned some new tricks, Fumio." Sakura said. She didn't sound impressed.

"You have no idea what I've learned." Fumio said, sneering. "And this time your team isn't around to bail you out. I've been waiting to take you down for a long time, Haruno."

"Tsch," Sakura said, gesturing at the bodies of the missing nin on the ground around her. "You think you can do better than your friends?"

"You dare to compare me to trash like that?" Fumio said, taking a step out into the courtyard. When his feet touched the ground, earth seemed to flow up around his body, where it began glowing with heat before turning into a magma shroud that covered his entire body. He looked like some demon out of legend.

"That's new." Sakura said, sidling away from Natsumi to keep her out of the line of fire. "Finally manifested a bloodline worthy of the name, eh?"

"This is the least of the powers my master has granted me!" Fumio boasted, his voice oddly distorted by the magma covering. He circled around to continue facing Sakura, apparently content to exchange verbal barbs for now.

"I'm surprised Orochimaru had any interest in a guy like you." Sakura replied.

"My master is not some pitiful Konoha criminal." Fumio said. "He is a God! He will bring peace to the Elemental Nations, and I will sit at his right hand!"

"Does this god have a name?" Sakura asked.

"You don't deserve to know his name!" Fumio replied, sending another ball of magma at his adversary. She dodged it, and the fight was on.

Natsumi had trouble following exactly what was going on, but it became clear that both fighters were having trouble landing a telling blow on the other. Fumio struck out with great fury, summoning whips of magma that flowed from his arm like great molten snakes, but Sakura was agile enough to dodge his blows with ease. At some point she had armed herself with a staff, and from time to time she would dart in and land a blow to Fumio's body.

However ponderously the magma user moved, the armor was doing a good job of protecting him. He had several ringing hits from his opponent and didn't seem to be affected at all. Despite his apparent invulnerability, Natsumi caught a glimpse of Sakura's face as the kunoichi weaved between her opponent's attacks, and was surprised by the serene expression she wore. Natsumi was suddenly struck by the impression that Sakura already knew how the fight would end. She was also struck by the sound of birds chirping in the surrounding forest-suggesting the presence of far more wildlife here than back home, despite the high powered ninja fight going on.

Sakura suddenly made her move, charging straight at Fumio as the staff in her hands transformed into a spear aimed straight at his face. He brought his arms up to guard, obviously ready to absorb the blow and immolate Sakura with his counter attack. Just before the spear was to strike home, Sakura reversed her ground, coming to a halt outside of Fumio's reach. At the same instead, the armor around his chest bulged obscenely before a delicate hand sheathed in lightning burst through it.

Fumio slid forward and fell to the ground, revealing a pink haired form standing behind him. Natsumi could see a few sparks of lightning moving from her elbow down to her arm. After a moment, the lightning disappeared, and with it the chirping birds fell silent. The clone looked up at Natsumi, gave her a cheerful salute, and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Poor guy." Sakura said. Natsumi looked over to see her gazing contemplatively at Fumio's body. "His master could give him all the power in the world, but learning to see underneath the underneath was something he had to do for himself.

ooOoo

That evening, safely ensconced in the woods a few miles away from the Rock team's camp, a trio of Konoha ninja gathered around a small camp fire. Over the course of six months of extended time in the field, the technique theft squad had developed a certain level of cameraderie and comfort with one another. They might not actually like each other-Sakura wasn't sure if Sai really liked anybody-but they shared an almost familial bond. Of course, like any family, they had their share of arguments.

"I don't like it." Sai said, shaking his head. "There were a few teams in the last war who decided to try taking on Konoha's God of Shinobi. The lucky ones died quickly."

"Just because somebody calls themselves a god doesn't make them Sarutobi Hiruzen." Sakura said. "Besides, wasn't the whole reason we came out here to find out who was behind the recent troubles in Grass? We knew we'd have to tangle with somebody strong."

Interrogation of the surviving members of the gang had revealed that Fumio had semi-regular contact with his mysterious master. Every few weeks the other shinobi would be ordered out of the hideout and left to their own devices. Those who had stuck around had seen a cloaked figure they could only describe as "seriously scary" sweep into their hideout, to be received like a visiting daimyo. The next visit was supposed to be happening soon, which naturally gave rise to the idea of setting an ambush.

"Yeah, and we thought we could use the Rock team as a buffer between us and the enemy." Sai replied. "Of course, that was before you developed your little protege."

Sasuke snorted, the Uchiha equivalent of a belly laugh, and Sakura forced herself to take a deep breath and maintain a firm hold on her temper. Only on a team with these two would friendly behavior be treated as some kind of eccentricity.

"If I'd known the Rock hunter team was a genin squad I would have suggested a different plan." Sakura said. "But we'll still have the help of Shigeo the Trapster in setting things up. That's not nothing."

Sai hummed indecisively and glanced over at Sasuke, seeking his input. Their commander could be disturbingly odd in his interpersonal interactions, but he at least knew that a leader couldn't manage a squad without occasionally listening to his teammates.

"I say we do it." Sasuke said, his expression as serious as ever. "If we never test ourselves against strong opponents we can never measure our true capacity."

"So eager, both of you." Sai said, shaking his head, before he turned to meet Sakura's eyes. "I don't think this is a good idea, but you're the one most at risk, so I'll leave the decision up to you."

And so for the next several days Sakura spent her evenings lying in wait. She was thankful that their captives had been consistent in claiming that the cloaked figure always visited an hour or two after sunset, which meant that she only had to spend a few hours in position rather than a few days.

The plan was simple enough. Shigeo had set some kind of seal based snare just inside the front door of the hideout. It operated by turning the target's chakra against them to hold them in place, and he claimed that it would hold anybody in the Elemental Countries for at least a few seconds. The Rock team had then retreated to a safe distance from which to watch the fireworks. If things went wrong, they didn't want any genin anywhere near the crossfire.

Sakura, meanwhile, was taking advantage of the design of the house. The entry way took up all three floors of the building, apparently in a bid to impress visitors. More than a story off the ground, a latticework of beams formed a pathway in the air, part of the building's support structure. Sakura was perched directly above the chakra snare. Since she didn't have to use any chakra to stay in place, she should be impossible for anybody but a sensor nin to detect.

It was on the third day of waiting that it happened. A cloaked figure threw open the door, bellowed something about expecting a better welcome, and then stepped forward into the trap. Sakura was in motion as soon as she felt the chakra flare of the activating seal, and so she was already plummeting through the air when a stray beam of moonlight illuminated the stylized red clouds decorating the bottom of her target's cloak.

Thoughts raced through her mind at lightning speed as her fall seemed to slow down. Even in midair, like most ninja Sakura would still be able to alter her course and flee. If this was the ninja that had dominated his fight with Kakashi, attacking was likely suicide. The problem was that fleeing was certain suicide. Right now her target was in the middle of a prepared trap. She was never going to have a better opportunity to strike, and once he was free she was never going to outdistance him in the open field.

Sakura resigned herself to the likelihood of her death but gave no outward sign other than a slight shift as she planned to make a killing blow rather than a disabling one. They would have liked a chance to interrogate this mastermind, but if she was as badly outclassed as she feared-and in addition to the red clouds on his cloak, she now could feel monstrous levels of chakra being thrown out as he fought the snare-she didn't dare risk attacking with anything less than an intent to kill.

She was surprised when her attack was successful, bringing her hand into contact with her target's head while she latched onto his back, avoiding the oversized sword strapped over his cloak. She activated her bastardized medical attack directly in his skull, and briefly felt the sensation of pulped brain matter before an elbow caught her in the ribs and sent her flying out into the courtyard.

Sakura rolled rather uncerimoniously to a halt flat on her back on the ground outside. She dimly registered that several of her ribs were bruised and most likely broken, but the majority of her attention was focused on the figure silhouetted in the doorway and her amazing good fortune in defeating him. Even with his brain pulped from the inside, his body had reflexively struck with overwhelming speed and force. She would never have lasted a minute against him in a fair fight.

She was just beginning to wonder why his body had not yet toppled to the floor when there was a flare of malevolent chakra from in front of her. She watched, horrified, as he slowly turned around to face her.

"No... that's impossible." Sakura whispered, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Please, if a love tap like that were enough to keep me down they never would have trusted me with Samehada." The figure before her spoke for the first time as he pulled his sword from its place on his back. He paused for a moment to rub at his nose with his off hand, before glancing down with some surprise at the blood on his fingers. "I must be going soft in my old age though, letting a little girl like you make me bleed. I just won't feel right about it until I get a chance to even the scales."

With that, he began to advance toward her, and Sakura got her first good look at him in the light. His monstrous chakra was not his only inhuman feature-his skin was an odd, pale green color, and his face was marked with what almost appeared to be gills. Striding forward, he looked like nothing quite so much as a shark stalking its prey. Given the ease with which he wielded his enormous sword in a single hand, Sakura didn't like her chances in close combat. She had a feeling he was not going to be content with simply giving her a nosebleed.

She rose to her feet and stepped back as he moved forward, automatically summoning a staff to her hands from the earth. She entertained no illusions as to her ability to win this fight. She had already hit him with her strongest attack, and he had shrugged it off like it was nothing. Her only hope was to draw things out, in the hopes that her teammates would be able to save her.

Her opponent suddenly lunged forward, moving more quickly than a man that large ought to be able to. She brought her staff up to block, only to freeze in shock as his sword cleaved right through it without slowing down, her weapon turning to mud in her hands as he did so. The only reason she survived was that her opponent deliberately angled his blade to graze along her side rather than cleave her in two, and even that felt like razors being ground along her skin. After the initial attack her opponent allowed her to withdraw and even to reform her weapon, for whatever good it would do her.

"I suppose I should have told you, Samehada eats chakra." He explained, smiling at her. It was not a reassuring smile. "And as you'll see, she doesn't cut, she shaves."

Sakura's eyes widened as she suddenly understood that the weakness she was feeling was not just due to blood loss, but also caused by the direct theft of her chakra. Ignoring the faint pangs of hopelessness beginning to appear in the back of her mind, she leapt forward to attack. Her opponent nonchalantly brought his sword up to block, but just before it made contact Sakura released her control of the technique. The tip of her staff, now just a ball of mud, continued upward on its trajectory towards her opponent's face. He nonchalantly blocked the projectile with his off hand, but Sakura used the momentary distraction well. By the time he brought his hand down from his face, he was surrounded by a set of clones.

Safely ensconced in one of the trees scattered throughout the courtyard, Sakura watched as he set about destroying her illusionary army with a sort of pure joy in slaughter. She had left two earth clones, each coordinating a set of four illusionary clones. While her enemy dispatched the illusionary clones with a cursory swipe of his blade, he took his time whenever he encountered a solid clone, taking them apart one limb at a time. In a very short time he was left alone in the courtyard, glancing around in frustration.

"I never did like these games of hide and seek." He announced, and Sakura felt a tremendous buildup of chakra. When he started the technique it was already more chakra than she had ever felt gathered at once before, and by the time he finished speaking it was exerting an almost physical push against everything in the courtyard. "Oh well, I never did like this town anyway..."

"Kisame." A second voice interrupted him, and Sakura felt the gathered chakra vanish. She couldn't identify the new speaker as he entered the courtyard, shrouded as he was in a black cloak. "It's time to go."

"What?" For a monstrous killing machine, he sounded surprisingly petulant. "But I can't just let her get away. She made me bleed-my own blood!"

"Our mission is complete." The response was mild, but unyielding. "If you'd like to explain to the Leader that we were delayed because you were chasing down a Konoha chuunin, that's your choice."

"Awww," the man replied, "sometimes you're no fun, Itachi."

With that, the two men below disappeared, not even a puff of smoke marking the spot where they had been standing. Sakura stared in shock, unable to believe that she had been spared. Then, just when she was getting ready to move, she froze in shock again as she processed what she had heard.

She knew who Itachi Uchiha was-being on the same team with Sasuke, not to mention his destined true love, it was only sensible to do a little research on his background. Finding out that his mortal enemy was one of the most dangerous missing nin in the Elemental Countries was impressive, in a way. A part of her even thought Sasuke was talented enough to someday defeat his brother, even if the latter was a legendary killer among legendary killers.

Of slightly more immediate concern was the question of why he had let her live. Sakura believed her concealment could have been good enough to hide her from a straight ahead fighter like Kisame, maybe. It was flatly impossible that she could have fooled Itachi. He had been in ANBU at the same age that most children were graduating from the Academy, and he was considered one of Konoha's top genjutsu experts by the time he was a teenager. One of the stories she had read suggested that the reason that Itachi's bingo book entry didn't have a flee on sight order was that once you saw Itachi, the question of your survival was simply a matter of whether he felt like killing you.

Sakura was trying to puzzle out why he would have wanted to spare her life when she finally processed the content of his statements. Itachi, one of the most notorious criminals in Konoha's history, was apparently taking orders from somebody. More than that, he said he had completed his mission. Whatever that was, it couldn't possibly be good.

Sakura jumped down from her perch in the tree and made her way across the street to the building from which the the Rock team had been observing her stakeout. She wanted to check on her own teammates, but she could hardly reveal their existence to a bunch of foreign nin. When she reached the hideout she saw that those concerns were moot.

Shigeo was dead, struck down by a kunai to the heart, and his two male students were in a similar state. None of them looked like they had put up much of a fight-if they were up against Itachi, that was to be expected. The girl was missing, and a quick search turned up no sign of her body. Sakura chewed her lip for a moment, thinking, before turning to leave the room. The simple fact was that if Natsumi had been kidnapped by Itachi, there was nothing Sakura could do to track them down. Besides, she needed to check on her own team.

Both Sai and Sasuke were unmoving when she reached them, and for a moment she feared the worst. However, neither one of them had suffered any visible wounds, and on closer inspection each had a steady pulse. They were to all intents and purposes asleep, but nothing she could do could get them to wake. Sakura frowned as she realized what had happened-they had both been subjected to the same technique that had left Kakashi and Sasuke in a coma, so long ago.

Sakura didn't have any good options. Travelling on her own, she could make the trip back to Konoha in a week or so, and a medic would be able to make it back here in about the same amount of time. Carrying both of her teammates would slow her down to a point that both of them would probably die on the journey. If she carried just one of them it would add a day or two to her travel time, and leave her badly worn out when she arrived. However, a teammate under her care would definitely be in better shape than the teammate left to the inexpert ministrations of a rice farmer. In the end, there was only one decision she could make.

Sakura left Sai with a farmer who was the closest thing the town had to a doctor. She could tell that the man had mixed feelings about her-a certain amount of gratitude for ridding the town of missing nin, mixed in with irritation at her interruption of his sleep and the general wariness most civilians felt around shinobi. She gave a brief explanation of what he would have to do to keep Sai alive and then left, well aware that the best Sai could hope for was to be kept clean and, if he was lucky, hydrated.

As she made her way out of town, Sasuke cradled before her in a bridal carry, she wondered what it said about her that she had found the choice of which teammate to save such an easy one to make.

ooOoo

The trip home was a nightmare. To begin with, there were her own injuries. After the first hour of travel she was certain that her ribs were not just fractured, but broken. Unfortunately, Sakura's medical studies had proceeded no further than the poison extraction technique, mastery of which was required before students were taught to manipulate deeply seated injuries like broken bones. She knew the theory, but she also knew that messing around with internal injuries was not a good area for self-experimentation. The best she could do was wrap herself tightly to try to provide some support.

The other reason for the bandages was the trouble she was having with the wounds from Kisame's sword. That kind of surface level cuts should have been well within her ability to take care of. However, some sort of foreign chakra taint had been left behind by the sword, and the wounds simply refused to close properly. The best she could do was to reduce them to a state where they only seeped blood instead of letting it leak freely down her side. Sakura was taking a blood replenishment pill every evening and hoping for the best.

The other major problem she faced was, of course, Sasuke. Every morning and every evening she did her best to make sure he was taking in sufficient nutrients and water, using chakra manipulation to ease small amounts of broth down his throat. She checked on his breathing and circulation, although she was hardly expert enough to be comforted by her inability to detect any problems. During the day she simply focused on putting one foot in front of the other until she could go no further. After taking care of Sasuke, she would settle down and attempt to join him in sleep.

Worry over Sasuke's state, pain from her own wounds, and some residual terror at how close they had all come to being killed combined to keep her up nights, staring up at the stars and wondering what was happening with her life. Sleep came fitfully, and she was plagued with strange dreams. She dreamed of being ambushed while carrying Sasuke, she dreamed of getting lost in the forest and carrying him in circles for weeks, she even dreamed of being ambushed by Sasuke.

The first time that she dreamed they had arrived back in Konoha, she cried when she woke up. The second time, she punched the ground beside her pillow hard enough to leave a dent. After the third time it happened, she just shrugged and started her daily routine.

By the sixth day of the trip, she was starting to have trouble distinguishing between sleeping and waking, and only her grim determination to see Sasuke home alive kept her moving. On the eighth day, when the walls of Konoha finally came into sight, she was half-convinced she was still dreaming. She staggered into town, ignoring the chuunin guarding the gate, and managed to make it to the hospital before she collapsed.

ooOoo

Sakura woke up with the feeling that something was wrong. It took her a moment to realize that the sensation she was missing was the pain from her wounds. A moment after that she recognized the ceiling she was staring at as belonging to the Konoha general hospital.

"Sasuke..." Sakura whispered to herself, wondering how he was doing, then coughed.

"Your teammate is fine." Sakura looked up, surprised, to see the incongrously young form of the Hokage standing in her hospital room. "He's now merely sleeping, not suffering from an induced coma. My apprentice is keeping an eye on him.

"What I'd like to know," Tsunade continued, stepping closer to the hospital bed, "is how you managed to pick a fight with Itachi Uchiha. I distinctly remember instructing you to stay away from S class ninja."

"It was an ambush." Sakura said. "We thought we had a lead on the mastermind behind the troubles in Grass and set a trap, but they turned it around on us. His partner was toying with me while Itachi... he-"

Sakura's explanation was interrupted when an aide came bursting into the room. "Lady Hokage, there has been an attack! Kabuto is dead, and Sasuke is missing!"

"No," the Hokage said, almost to herself, before focusing on the aide. "You're sure? Kabuto is a skilled medic, able to cling to life even in extraordinary situations."

"Lady Hokage, his heart," the aide spoke, looking down, before forcing the words out, "his heart has been removed from his chest, and he suffered grievous electrical burns."

Sakura felt the blood drain from her face as the implications of what the aide was saying struck home. He was describing the wounds left behind by a lethal chidori strike. From the rapidly darkening expression on Tsunade's face, it was obvious that she understood as well.

"That little bastard..." She said, before she straightened, filled with renewed purpose. "Post a guard at Sakura's door, I'm going to handle this one personally."

With that, the Hokage strode out of the room, the aide trailing behind her. Sakura blinked, surprised that she felt content to stay in bed and wait to see how things turned out. She wondered why she wasn't feeling more urgency to find out what was happening, until she glanced down at the IV drip in her arm. It did make sense, the only way she could be feeling so pain free right now was if she was under some form of mild sedation. She thought about removing the needle, but it seemed like a better idea to close her eyes and take a little nap.

Sakura started awake some time later when the door to her room opened. She stared in shock as the familiar form of Yakushi Kabuto strode through the open door. She was unable to say anything as he walked over to her bed and started flipping through the cliboard containing her medical charts. After a moment he clucked his tongue.

"Sakura, you do get into the strangest situations out there in the field." Kabuto said, shaking his head.

"You're alive?" Sakura said. It was the only thing she could think to say.

"Obviously." Kabuto replied, pushing his glasses up his nose. Sakura was struck by how the usually innocuous gesture seemed almost intimidating. "Sakura, we need to talk."

ooOoo 


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Hey guys, as always, I appreciate all the reviews. I especially like to hear what worked for you, what didn't, and why.

ooOoo

Sakura looked into Kabuto's dark eyes, searching for some explanation of his odd behavior. Everybody in the hospital was convinced he was dead, and he wandered in to her room and wanted to chat? Her friend had demonstrated some quirky behavior in the past, but this was over the line.

"We'll talk, then." Sakura replied. "What's so important you're in here talking to me instead of letting everybody know you're alive?"

Kabuto didn't respond right away, instead walking over to the window. He stood for a moment with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing off into the distance. After a moment he spoke, though his voice was soft enough that Sakura had to strain to hear what he was saying.

"It really is beautiful, the village. Sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget to stop and appreciate what's in front of us." Kabuto said, then continued, his tone darkening. "Of course, from up here you can't see all the lies and corruption that are festering underneath the surface. Konoha is like a mighty oak tree whose roots have been dead for years. Orochimaru may be the immediate cause of its destruction, but even if he relented somebody else would see to it that the village fell. At least Lord Orochimaru is building something better to take its place."

Sakura sat up with a start as the implication of his words hit home. "You're a traitor! You kidnapped Sasuke!"

Sakura shifted her weight in preparation for an attack on Kabuto, but before she could move she found a perfectly formed medical scalpel hovering inches from her right eye. Looking up at Kabuto's suddenly serious face, Sakura was reminded of two things. First, she was still recuperating from her injuries and had no equipment on her other than her hospital gown. Second, Kabuto had been receiving training under the Hokage herself, in addition to whatever he had learned from Orochimaru. Sakura couldn't help but feel that the odds would not be in her favor in a physical conflict.

"Let's not get too excited, I want this to be a civil conversation," Kabuto said, straightening up while the scalpel disappeared from his hand. "Anyway, you should be careful about hurling those accusations around-there's no need to kidnap Sasuke, when he'll follow you around like a puppy if you offer him just a little bit of power... all that I did was help him make sure that this defection went a little more smoothly than the last."

Sakura could only stare at him as the initial shock wore off, leaving behind a feeling of profound betrayal. Kabuto had been there for her at her lowest points, a constant source of support and advice. Outside of her teammates, he was her closest friend in the village. She just couldn't comprehend how he could be a traitor.

"How could you..." She spoke almost without meaning to. "How could you do this to-to Konoha?"

"Quite easily, I'm afraid." Kabuto said, smiling that fake smile. "I swore myself to Orochimaru before I worked for Tsunade, and he really is a much more effective leader. Now it's simply a matter of going home."

"You, but... you must be lying about Sasuke. He wouldn't..." Sakura said, trailing off as she realized that Sasuke had, in fact, tried to leave Konoha once before. "If he wanted to leave, why not just slip away from one of our missions?"

"You don't know?" Kabuto said, looking closely at her reaction. "You really don't. You never wondered why Sasuke was back on duty so soon after he tried to betray the village? Why he was trusted with assignments that had him out of contact for months at a time?"

Sakura shook her head, not sure where Kabuto was going with this. "He spoke to the Hokage, he must have convinced her that he could be trusted."

Kabuto laughed, and Sakura could see the genuine amusement in his eyes. "Oh, Sakura, don't ever change."

He walked back over to the window, seemingly lost in thought once more. He spent a few moments looking out into the distance before he spoke again.

"Sasuke was given a slow acting poison. Did you ever notice how he would get antsy at the end of your deployments?" Kabuto asked. "If he didn't receive the right medicine every ten weeks, he would die."

Sakura stared at him in shock, unable to think of anything to say. It was hard to believe that Konoha would authorize something so ruthless... but on the other hand, it did explain why they would let Sasuke out of the village after what he did. It also explained some of Sasuke's behavior in the field. But it was taking a terrible chance-what if they had been delayed in getting home?

"It was brilliant work, something only a legendary medic like Lady Tsunade could pull off." Kabuto continued. "She didn't share any of the details, even with her trusted apprentice. It took me a year of independant research to come up with the antidote. Combine that with Sasuke's little run in with his brother and, well, he's already made it to Otogakure by now. I'll be joining him soon. The only question remaining is you."

"Me?" Sakura asked, shocked.

"Yes, you." Kabuto replied. "I have need of an assistant, and I'm sure Sasuke would be happy to have a familiar face around."

"You can't think-I would never betray Konoha like that!" Sakura said.

"Hmm." Kabuto said. "They kept Sasuke in the village with the iron chain of a threat to his life, but you're bound by the gossamer threads of a web of lies."

Sakura remained silent. She felt indignant at even the suggestion that she would abandon her village, but Kabuto had revealed too many surprises already for her to feel totally confident in her stance.

"Konoha tells you that the Will of Fire can be found in anybody." Kabuto said. "They tell you that all ninja are treated equally, that everybody has an equal chance to advance. Pretty words, but none of it is true.

"I've read your reports, Sakura." Kabuto continued. "I've seen how quickly you learn. You are one of the finest minds of your generation, and Konoha has you wasting your time tracking down a bunch of two-bit thugs. The bottom line is that if you don't have a bloodline and you aren't an exceptionally good killer, Konoha hardly cares about you. That's why they've been ignoring your intellectual development."

Sakura felt a wave of relief wash over her, but kept it from showing on her face. Kabuto was wrong about her-apparently he didn't know that it was her choice to be out in the field, and if all that he knew about her team was the content of the official reports, he was definitely underinformed. It was an important reminder that she wasn't dealing with some all-knowing big brother explaining how the world worked. Rather, she was dealing with a very smart missing nin on a recruitment kick. Sakura pushed aside the pain of betrayal and focused on the matter at hand.

There was a time when Sakura might have been vulnerable to this kind of sales pitch. She certainly had felt left out at times when Kakashi picked out Sasuke for special training, or when Naruto showed up with the mastery of a forbidden technique. But those times were long past. Once she decided to work hard and improve herself she had received more traning from Ebisu, Kakashi, even an offer of training from the Hokage herself... Sakura no longer felt like Konoha was ignoring her at all.

Of course, right now she didn't want to win a debate with Kabuto. She wanted to get out of this conversation alive and report his continued survival to the authorities. She knew enough about missing nins to know that recruiting pitches could only end in two ways: accepting their offer, or a fight to the death. Kabuto wasn't an opponent she would want to face in a fair fight. Now, on a battlefield of his choosing while she was still recuperating from her injuries, starting a fight would be suicide.

On the other hand, fooling Kabuto would be no picnic either. He had apparently been operating as a spy in Konoha for some time, and she knew he was smart. Still, even a sharp operator would want to believe their sales pitch was working.

Sakura kept all of her newfound conviction out of her voice when she spoke. "Well, it's only natural that more powerful ninja get more attention."

"Maybe, but there's a difference between special training and outright favoritism." Kabuto replied, a new note of confidence in his voice as he sensed her resolve weakening. "If you tried to desert, do you think you would have gotten off anywhere near as lightly as Sasuke did?"

He paused and waited for her to shake her head before continuing. "The only thing Orochimaru cares about is talent, in all of its forms. A genius like you could do well in his organization. What do you say?"

Sakura looked down at her blankets in thought, then looked back up at Kabuto. "What about my friends? My family?"

"Well, Sasuke has already joined us. I'm sure Naruto would be welcome as well." Kabuto replied. "As for your family... they would be granted asylum before we do anything too drastic to the civilians of Konoha."

"Then..." Sakura said, a note of hesitation in her voice that vanished as she continued. "I'll do it. For Sasuke. And for me."

The two of them smiled at each other, each of them planning exactly where best to plant a kunai in the other's back.

ooOoo

Kabuto let Sakura outfit herself in her standard travel gear, and didn't even complain when she took a soldier pill. The end result was that she felt much better physically but with much lower morale. Kabuto should have a decent idea what she was capable of, for him to be so confident in his own abilities was disheartening. It was possible that he just trusted her conversion to his cause, but she felt it pretty unlikely that he would be so trusting so fast.

Once her distinctive pink hair was tucked away under a grey bandanna, Kabuto led her out into the unused back ways through Konoha's hospital. Sakura took note of the body of the guard who had been left outside of her room, adding his death to the list of crimes for which Kabuto would be held to account. They made it all the way to a side exit from the hospital without encountering another living soul.

"By the way," Kabuto said, stopping Sakura from walking out into the street. "I should mention that I killed that guard using a fair approximation of your technique. Also, I made sure that the order forms for the ingredients that went into Sasuke's antidote were in your name."

Kabuto pushed his glasses back, giving Sakura a friendly smile that didn't touch his eyes. "So if you were thinking of calling in ANBU like you did when Sasuke first left the village, well... I'll just disappear, and you'll have some difficult questions to answer."

"I'm hurt that you think I would do such a thing." Sakura replied, wincing internally. So much for any idea that Kabuto trusted her. He now had her neatly boxed in-if she sought help from her village, it was more likely that she'd be stuck in an interrogation cell than that they would send a rescue party after Sasuke.

Sakura pondered her options as Kabuto led her through the village. Even as preoccupied as she was, she noted that no security patrols ever crossed their path-it was a little chilling how much information Kabuto had to have gathered about village operations. She was just wondering how he planned to get them out of the village itself when they reached the wall. Kabuto hardly broke stride as he bit his thumb and ran it along a non-descript section of the wall. With a puff of smoke that part of the wall vanished, revealing a tunnel broad enough for two people to walk side by side.

"They had my team help out with the rebuilding on this section of the wall." Kabuto commented. "I couldn't resist the opportunity."

After they were through the tunnel he smeared some blood on another section of the wall, and the tunnel vanished as if it had never existed. He then healed his thumb with a casual gesture and led Sakura out into the woods.

Half an hour later they were well away from Konoha and the sun was just beginning to set when Sakura decided it was time to make her move. She didn't want to wait until they stopped for the night, and Kabuto was sure to take extra measures to secure her once it was totally dark.

Considering the unknown-but likely quite high-level of skill her opponent possessed, Sakura knew she had to reach deep into her bag of tricks if she wanted to survive the next few minutes. Oddly enough, this meant that her first move would come straight from the Academy curriculum.

Sakura had been tremendously excited when she learned to perform the replacement technique without using hand seals. It increased her ability to evade attacks tremendously, and she anticipated using it offensively to great success as well. Unfortunately, as Ebisu had demonstrated in a painful lesson on overconfidence, the pulse of chakra the technique used to mark the user's destination could be detected by a competent opponent, who would then have an attack ready to meet you on arrival.

One of the advantages of learning to perform the technique without hand seals was that she didn't need to use the technique. That was why Sakura opened up her escape from Kabuto by sending out the chakra pulse that usually marked the beginning of a replacement technique, tagging a destination on the opposite side of him from where she stood.

Kabuto immediately spun to meet what he assumed to be an incoming opponent, and Sakura took advantage of the distraction by dropping a primed explosive tag where she stood and substituting herself with a tree branch that was fifty feet away. Part of her had wanted to press the attack as soon as his back was turned, but she couldn't afford to be caught in close combat with an opponent as skilled as Kabuto seemed to believe himself to be.

Sakura's caution proved justified when the smoke cleared from the explosion to reveal Kabuto to be totally unharmed, appearing to be almost amused by her attack. However, Sakura hadn't been idle. While he was obscured by the smoke she had raised two earth clones. She sent one back towards Konoha, while the other moved to engage Kabuto. At the same time she sent several illusionary clones at Kabuto, launching visually impressive attacks in his direction.

Kabuto ignored the illusionary clones, and dispatched her earth clone after a very brief taijutsu exchange. He then immediately set off after the clone heading to Konoha. That was what Sakura had been expecting-for all his attempts to pin his crimes on her, he still wouldn't want to risk a witness getting back to Konoha and revealing his continued survival. As soon as Kabuto left the clearing where their fight had occurred, she took off, putting as much distance between them as she could without leaving a trail for him to follow.

Kabuto may be a strong fighter, and a master spy, but he had spent almost all of his time in the village. Sakura, on the other hand, had been learning and practicing woodcraft almost non-stop for the last year. She was confident in her ability to evade him, but even so she didn't stop to rest until she felt exhaustion making her movements sloppy, over two hours after the fight had begun.

Sakura secured herself in a tree, out of sight from the ground below, and finally allowed herself to consider her situation. She was all alone, in the middle of the woods of Fire Country. Her teammate had been captured by a legendary ninja, which her village thought was her fault. She was being hunted by the forces of Sound, and soon enough would be hunted by the forces of the Leaf.

All ninja were required to have iron-clad emotional control, and Sakura did her best to live up to that commitment. Still, all she found herself able to do for the moment was cry herself to sleep.

ooOoo

The next morning Sakura took a moment to put her thoughts together while she gnawed on a ration bar for breakfast. Tempting though it was, she didn't dare attempt to return to Konoha. For one thing, she wouldn't put it past Kabuto and his allies to keep a watch on the approaches to the village. Even if she made it to the village, she would then have to attempt to convince the village authorities of her innocence.

Bad enough to undergo Ibiki Morino's attempts to get the "truth" out of her, but even worse was the fact that all it would take would be one mole inserted into the Torture and Interrogation group and she would be dead. Ordinarily she would never expect a member of T&I to turn traitor, but if Orochimaru had managed to get a spy positioned as the Hokage's apprentice, all bets were off. If she was going to die, it wasn't going to be in a cell, disarmed by her own village-Sakura would go down fighting for the life of herself and her teammate.

Of course, if she tried to save Sasuke alone, dying would be about all that she could hope to accomplish. If she was going to go up against one of the Legendary Three, she was going to need help. There were very few ninja Sakura trusted to watch her back, especially under the current circumstances, and the first thing she needed to do was to get into contact with them.

Mind made up, Sakura packed up and headed west toward Kusagakure. She steered clear of the roads, the trails preferred by ninja, even the game trails. It added a little time to her trip, but dealing with hunter-nin would have added more. Fortunately, despite the exciting beginning to her journey, the rest of the trip passed uneventfully, and Sakura soon found herself standing outside a familiar teppanyaki restaurant.

Sakura entered the restaurant during the lull between the lunch rush and the dinner crowd, and was pleased to see that the only occupied booth contained the familiar form of Mikio Koriwan, the Kusagakure capo that Kakashi had introduced as the leader of the Green party, the faction of Kusa nin that generally took a pro-Konoha view of things. She was less pleased when a group of four bodyguards stopped her as soon as she walked in the door.

A stranger would have found it to be an amusing scene: four large, heavily armed men nervously confronting an unarmed teenage girl. Sakura wore no marker of her village affiliation, and she was unarmed. Despite that, she stood with the confidence of one who felt her opponents presented no real threat. It was only partially faked-unlike the monsters she'd been fighting recently, the Kusagakure rank and file were barely in Sakura's league when it came to a head to head confrontation.

Mikio came out to defuse the situation before anything other than harsh glances were exchanged, and gave Sakura a measuring look. Sakura couldn't tell if he was evaluating her as a potential ally or bounty.

"Sakura Haruno, all grown up and causing trouble." He said, smiling at her. It didn't reach his eyes. "What brings you to my humble establishment?"

"There have been some misunderstandings." Sakura said. "I'm working to clear things up, but in the meantime I need a little favor from you."

"Well, I'm always happy to discuss a favor for a friend." He replied. "Come, sit."

He led her back to his booth, where they took seats facing across the table from each other. Sakura declined his offer of food, and took a moment to size him up. She was counting on the fact that Kusa nin usually did business based more on personal connections than village loyalty, and that Mikio would see more profit in helping her out than in turning her over to the village.

There was also the fact that from this distance Sakura could most likely kill him if a capture team came bursting in the door. That went unsaid, along with the fact that his people were no doubt securing the perimeter to ensure that she would only be able to leave if Mikio was unharmed and wanted to let her go.

Sakura finally broke the silence. "I need to know the location of Jiraiya the Toad Sage."

"There are easier ways of committing suicide than meddling in the affairs of one the Legendary Three, you know." Mikio replied.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" Sakura asked. "I just need to talk to him."

She actually just needed to talk to his apprentince, but there was no need for Mikio to know that detail.

"Even so, sending somebody along to harass Jiraiya, that's the kind of thing that could create problems for me down the line." Mikio said.

Sakura stared at him for a moment before the ryo dropped. "What do you want me to do first?"

"It's good to see that at least some of you Konoha types can learn the value of a quid pro quo." Mikio said, smiling at her. "As to what I need, it's very simple."

He reached under the table and withdrew an envelope. Setting it on the table, he slid it across to Sakura. She opened the envelope to find a photo of a man in his mid-twenties, along with a description of his daily routine and a brief sketch of his fighting ability. The man was heavily built, with a brutish face that the photographer had caught in an angry scowl.

"This man is a problem that I would like to have solved." Mikio explained.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Does it matter?" Mikio replied.

Sakura took a moment to consider her feelings and was a little scared to realize that it didn't matter. She needed to rescue Sasuke, and in order to rescue Sasuke she needed to find Naruto. If some Kusa shinobi she had never met had to die for that to happen, then so be it. She still had her pride, though, and she wasn't about to admit her desperation to a foreign nin.

"Of course it matters. I'm a shinobi, not some two-bit sword for hire." Sakura said, schooling her face to hide her emotions.

"Hmm." Mikio said, examining her. "Fine."

Sakura couldn't tell if it was a note of respect in his voice or a note of irritation at having to explain himself.

"As you may know, politics in Kusagakure can be a contact sport. However, there are rules. No rape, no kids." Mikio's expression turned grim. "Daisuke Endo is a mid-level enforcer for the Yellows, and I'm afraid they need a little reminder that breaking the rules has consequences."

Sakura felt her gaze harden. Rape was unfortunately common among missing nin, who were often men that were too strong to be brought under control by the usual law enforcement. She had considered it one of the perks of her job on the jutsu theft squad that she was able to discourage that kind of thing. Violently.

"Fair enough." sakura said, looking at the folder with new eyes. Konoha, like all of the major villages, was very choosy when it came to accepting assassination missions, but something like this would easily pass muster with the Mission Office. "I can take care of it tonight, actually, but it won't be very subtle."

"That's fine." Mikio replied. "After all, the whole point of this is to send a message."

Sakura had a feeling that part of the message was that she was willing to act as his enforcer, but that was a price she was happy to pay. If trading on the reputation Konoha had helped her build up would bring her closer to rescuing Sasuke, then that was what she would do.

ooOoo

Kusagakure's funding system, like everything else about the village, was a labyrinthine mess, but Sakura thought she had a decent handle on the basics. Local merchants would pay to be considered members of good standing in one of the major political parties. In exchange, that party would provide certain services for the merchants, the most notable being to protect them from harassment from either party. Kusa shinobi referred to these payments as "voluntary dues," but to Sakura it seemed more akin to protection money.

In any event, part of Daisuke's duties included collecting these payments, and that evening he would be visiting the shops at the Cherry Blossom Market. Sakura had originally noticed the location simply because the name had jumped off the page at her, but after conducting some initial reconaissance the area was well set up for an ambush. There was enough people around that she could hide in the crowd, but not so many as to get in the way when she decided to make her move. Usually she would do a lot more preparation and background research before embarking on a mission like this, but usually she wasn't worried about hunter nin tracking her down and taking her in for interrogation.

Sakura was currently standing in front of a fruit stand, appearing to examine the selection of apples on offer. However, most of her attention was focused on the sensory input of an earth clone that she had positioned on the other side of the plaza where it could see most of the shops bordering the marketplace while it pretended to read a newspaper. Sakura and the clone were both disguised by the simple expedient of covering their hair-one nice thing about having such a distinctive feature was that once it was hidden, she was nearly unrecognizable.

Sakura smiled to herself when she saw Daisuke swagger out of a store, tucking a small money pouch into his pocket. He had two younger men in tow that Sakura assumed were his subordinates, and the trio was engaged in animated conversation. Sakura waited until they were positioned in between her clone and herself before she made her move, liquifying the ground under Daisuke's feet.

When she had tried this trick on Anko, she had channeled chakra to her feet before sinking more than an inch into the ground. Anko, however, was a combat hardened kunoichi of Konoha who had the advantage of knowing something was coming. Daisuke spent all day bullying civilians around, and was caught completely by surprise. He wasn't able to arrest his fall into the ground until after he had sunk in up to his knees. He was far too late, as Sakura immediately reacted by compressing the earth, crushing muscle and bone to pulp.

While Daisuke howled in agony and doubled over, flailing at the ground with his bare hands, his two subordinates looked around wildly for their attacker. Sakura's clone made the search easy by launching a fireball in their direction. The two men moved to engage the clone while Sakura strode over to Daisuke. Her clone was in the middle of a taijutsu battle about twenty feet away when Sakura grabbed Daisuke by the hair and yanked his head back, exposing his throat.

Her clone took that as a signal to dispel, melting back into the ground and prompting the two henchman to look back towards their boss. They were just in time to watch as Sakura slashed her kunai across his throat. There was nothing they could do but look on in horror as Sakura gave them a cheerful wave and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

ooOoo

"It's done." Sakura announced as she entered the clearing outside of town where she was meeting Mikio.

"I see you live up to your reputation." Mikio replied.

Mikio didn't seem inclined to continue, and Sakura remained silent as she kept her eyes on the man in front of her. After a moment he seemed to come to a decision.

"I really do hate to meddle in Jiraiya's affairs." Mikio said. "But I suppose it's not any great secret that he'll be at the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival in Snow Country next week."

Sakura took a moment to consider the geography. Snow Country was located between Rice Country and Tea Country on the northern border of Fire Country. She could easily make it there in time for the festival, and it would actually be on her path to Otogakure anyways. With all of the horrible things that had happened to her lately, it was nice to catch a break.

"There is one other thing. I need you to deliver a message for me." Sakura said, then detailed what she needed.

"I can do that." Mikio replied, "Consider it a favor for a friend."

Sakura wasn't thrilled to owe a favor to someone like Mikio, but that was a problem she would deal with if she lived through this little adventure.

ooOoo

Naruto Uzumaki was feeling a little conflicted. On the one hand, the food, music, and games being put on as part of the festival were a lot more exciting than camping out in the woods. On the other hand, it really detracted from the festival experience when he didn't have any friends to share it with. On top of that, he didn't appreciate having his sensei abandon him for several days-how was he supposed to learn awesome new techniques and become Hokage if Jiraiya was spending all of his time off doing "research" for his stupid books?

His temporary melancholy was lifted when the ramen he had ordered arrived at his table. He carried instant ramen for use while camping out, of course, and Naruto would never disparage any form of ramen, but it was nice to get a proper bowl made fresh to order.

"I should have known I would find you here." The voice came from behind him, and when Naruto spun around on his stool to see a familiar pink head of hair, he almost fell out of his seat.

"Saku-" Naruto said, but was cut off as Sakura put a finger over his lips to shush him. She then surprised Naruto by leaning in for a hug. Naruto would never turn down any form of contact with the girl who owned his heart, but this felt less like a friendly gesture and more like she was clinging to a life preserver. He was about to say something when she pulled back and spoke first.

"It's good to see you too, but you shouldn't be shouting my name out right now." Sakura said, smiling sadly. "There's been a bit of a misunderstanding."

"What-what's going on?" Naruto asked, "what are you doing out here anyway?"

"Listen to me carefully, Naruto. Jiraiya is going to tell you some things that aren't true. He's not lying, he's just misinformed." Sakura replied. "Orochimaru kidnapped Sasuke and made it look like he abandoned the village. He also framed me for some crimes. I managed to escape, and I'm going to rescue Sasuke, but I'll need your help."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go rescue the bastard!" Naruto said. There was no way he was going to turn down the chance to help one of his precious people rescue another one of his precious people.

"Not just yet, I think." Sakura replied, her eyes flicking over to look at something behind Naruto. "But keep your kunai sharp."

"You know brat, usually I'd be ok with you running off with a girl." Jiraiya's voice came from behind Naruto, and sounded unusually serious. "But this one's bad news."

"So cold," Sakura said, bringing her hands up to clutch at her heart, "shouldn't the gallant Jiraiya be helping the damsel in distress?"

"Kid, I help the girls who are in trouble, not the ones who make trouble." Jiraiya said, as he strode forward to stand next to Naruto.

Sakura began backing away as Jiraiya walked forward. There was a sudden flicker of motion that Naruto couldn't quite follow, and when it ended, Jiraiya had Sakura held in a painful looking wrist lock. Despite the situation, Sakura was smiling.

"I suppose there's a reason they call you a legendary ninja." She said, just before her body turned to mud and melted away.

"Sensei! What the hell did you do to her?" Naruto asked, shocked by the sudden turn of the situation from a reunion to a violent confrontation.

"I didn't do anything, brat. Use your head-that was an earth clone all along." Jiraiya replied, shaking the mud off of his hands. Naruto could feel a rush of power being drawn toward the legendary ninja as his eyes changed shape. Then the moment passed, and Jiraiya was back to normal. "Her real body never came within a mile of here."

Jiraiya sighed, before continuing. "I need to have a talk with Ebisu about what he considers an 'adequate level' of elemental chakra control. But right now I need to have a talk with you about teammates."

Jiraiya took the stool next to Naruto at the ramen stand. The recent outburst of violence had cleared the area of civilians, so they pretty much had the place to themselves. Jiraiya threw down a wad of bills at the stand's owner to receive a bottle of sake and some privacy. He downed his first cup in a single swallow and refilled it before he began to speak.

"The first thing you have to understand is that people change. Somebody who started out as a perfectly loyal shinobi can grow into a monster." Jiraiya said. "Many shinobi start out with dreams and ambitions, but in some those turn into obsessions. That's what happened with Sasuke."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"The kid is totally obsessed with growing powerful enough to kill his brother. He's willing to do anything to make it happen." Jiraiya responded. "Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't go bad sooner."

"That's a load of crap!" Naruto responded. "I have a dream of becoming Hokage, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn evil."

"Brat, you have a dream. Sasuke has an obsession." Jiraiya said, then paused for a moment in thought. "Look, what if I told you that all you had to do to become Hokage is kill old man Teuchi at the Ichiraku Ramen stand?"

"That's ridiculous, I'd never do that." Naruto said.

"Sasuke would." Jiraiya said. "If he thought it would give him the power to beat his brother, he wouldn't even hesitate."

"No way. I know Sasuke, he wouldn't do that." Naruto said. His teammate might be kind of a jerk, but Naruto was sure he would never kill an innocent civilian in cold blood.

"You know, Orochimaru was like that once." Jiraiya said, his eyes unfocused as he thought back into the past. "Ambitious, a real jerk, but a perfectly loyal shinobi. They even thought he might make Hokage."

"But over time, his ambitions twisted him." Jiraiya continued. "Now he's a monster, one that I should have ended years ago. I didn't because I wanted to believe the best of my old teammate."

"Sasuke is nothing like that snake bastard." Naruto replied, hot under the collar. "Once I get him free, he'll come back to the village no problem!"

"Kid, the sooner you accept reality, the less heartache you're going to cause yourself." Jiraiya replied, taking a moment to polish off his second glass of sake.

"How do you even know all this? Sakura says you're wrong about Sasuke." Naruto said. He didn't want to step all over the real pain that Jiraiya obviously felt over the betrayal he had suffered at the hands of Orochimaru, but he wasn't going to just give up on his friends.

"Oh, right, her. You don't know what she's been up to, do you?" Jiraiya said, somehow sounding even more glum as he knocked back another swallow of sake. "Your little girlfriend massacred a Rock genin team on her last mission, then helped Sasuke skip town before she abandoned the village herself."

"What? Sakura would never do something like that." Naruto said, shocked.

"Do you want to see the letters from the Tsuchikage? She damn near kicked off the next shinobi world war-it was lucky for us she was a missing nin before we even got the protests from Iwa." Jiraiya replied. "Or I could show you the autopsies from the trail of bodies she left behind her on her way out of Konoha?"

Naruto didn't reply, stunned. He couldn't imagine the girl he had known for so long doing something like that, but Jiraiya seemed absolutely sure-and had the evidence to back it up. It just didn't make sense.

"Why would she..." Naruto trailed off, almost whispering.

"She's been in the field a lot over the last year, Naruto. A lot of fighting, a lot of killing." Jiraiya said. Again, he seemed to be lost in memory as he spoke, as if he was seeing something that wasn't there. "Some people wilt in life-and-death situations, some people handle it ok, and some people start to like it. We saw it a lot after the last war, people who had gotten used to being in crazy battles every day, who couldn't adjust to a normal lifestyle in peace time."

"She reminds me a lot of one kid I knew. A really talented ninja, and just the sweetest kid you ever met. They threw him on the front lines, and he just kept proving himself, day after day." Jiraiya paused to take another sip of his drink. "Then the war ended, and everybody came home. He was still a model citizen, courteous and polite-then one day Itachi decided to kill his family, just to see if he could."

"We just talked to Sakura. She's not some crazy psychopath like Itachi." Naruto protested.

"She's a trained ninja. Of course she's not some cackling maniac all the time." Jiraiya said. "But whatever plan she's trying to recruit you for, it's just going to end in blood and tears."

"You're wrong. I don't know why you're wrong but you are. Sakura and Sasuke are two of my precious people, and I'm going to bring them back to the village, believe it!" Naruto announced, then deflated slightly. "But I don't have any idea how to get in touch with her now."

"That's a good thing, brat. You shouldn't be so eager to repeat my mistakes," Jiraiya said, leaning forward to look Naruto in the eye, "and I won't let you do it either."

"Whatever," Naruto grumbled, and the conversation wound down from there. Naruto headed back to the hotel room while Jiraiya stayed at the bar for the moment, intent on drowning some bad memories. Naruto was drained after the emotional confrontation and was ready to make an early night of it.

Naruto was doing a routine check of his gear before turning in when he discovered that he had inadvertently deceived his sensei. One of his kunai had been switched out for a kunai with a note wrapped around the handle.

Unwrapping the note, Naruto saw a map of the surrounding area, with a spot outside of the city marked with an X, and a note in Sakura's handwriting.

"Wait for your opportunity, you'll know it when you see it. Meet me by the waterfall. Please, Naruto, you're my only hope!"

ooOoo

Naruto spent the next few days waiting for his chance to go join Sakura. He didn't seriously consider telling Jiraiya about the note. The way Naruto figured it, either Jiraiya was right, in which case Naruto needed to talk Sakura back into being a good guy, or Jiraiya was wrong, in which case Naruto needed to help save Sasuke.

Naruto knew that people considered him a little simple-minded, but he firmly believed that life was pretty simple. People just made it complicated.

Unfortunately for Naruto, while Jiraiya didn't appear to suspect the existence of the note, the Toad Sage did keep Naruto in his sight at all times. Instead of turning Naruto loose on the festival, Jiraiya had him stand lookout for his daily research. The two ate all of their meals together, and Jiraiya had Naruto move his futon into a shared hotel room. The two didn't spend any time apart until the evening of the third day after Sakura's appearance.

Jiraiya had dragged Naruto out to a bar for dinner and the two of them had just settled into the booth when a woman walked up to them. She lacked the subtle musculature and graceful movements of a trained kunoichi, but everything else... well, she could have modeled for the cover of one of Jiraiya's books (Naruto felt that reading the books was perverted, but there was no harm in looking).

"Excuse me," she said, once she was within earshot. "Are you Jiraiya-the Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya stood up and did his ridiculous introduction speech. By now Naruto had learned to tune out his sensei's antics, and he focused instead on the woman's reaction. Instead of being put off by his behavior, she was staring at Jiraiya with rapt attention and even blushing a litle bit.

"Oh, I'm so happy to meet you! I'm Mimi, and those are my sisters Cici and Lili." She said, indicating a table across the way. The two women sitting there could have been twins-triplets if you included Mimi. "We were wondering..."

She leaned in and began whispering in Jiraiya's ear. After a moment he started blushing, and then a small trickle of blood started leaking from his nose. When she finished talking Jiraiya gave a perverted giggle, and then posed with his hand over his heart.

"Let it never be said that the gallant Jiraiya failed to satisfy the needs of a fan!" Jiraiya announced, then turned to Naruto with a more serious look on his face. "Kid, the bartender here is a friend of mine. If you have any trouble, go see Hiroshi, ok?"

Left unsaid was the fact that Hiroshi would be making sure that Naruto didn't wander off. Naruto grumbled his acquiescence and Jiraiya disappeared so fast he left an after-image behind. Naruto turned back to his dinner, a little irritated at being abandoned so easily.

It actually took half an hour for Naruto to consider that this might be the opportunity Sakura had been talking about. It didn't seem like a very Sakura-like thing to do. On the other hand, she had a pretty limited set of options available when it came to manipulating Jiraiya. Newly resolved, Naruto looked around the bar, trying to think of a way out.

The bar was actually pretty sparsely populated. A large group of men had commandeered two of the booths across the way, and were well on their way to getting plastered. Two couples were scattered at the tables set in the middle of the floor. Otherwise, it was just Naruto and Hiroshi-it didn't seem likely that Naruto could just get lost in the crowd.

Naruto was distracted from his thoughts by a sudden need to perform every ninja's first suiton jutsu. He frowned and tried to ignore the sensation before he was struck by a moment of inspiration. He chuckled to himself and stood to go to the bathroom.

Naruto was a little irritated when he headed into the back area where the restrooms were located and turned to see Hiroshi poking his head into the hall. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man, who held his hands out in a placating manner.

"Hey, Jiraiya said I need to keep an eye on you." He explained.

"I just need to take a piss. You want to come in and hold it for me?" Naruto asked. The bartender replied by flipping him off, but didn't make a move to follow Naruto into the men's room.

The facilities were pretty basic. A single stall and urinal were illuminated by a flickering light bulb. The light cast some odd reflections off of the tiled walls, and it took Naruto a moment to confirm that he was alone. He took care of his business and then summoned a shadow clone.

"You know what to do." Naruto instructed.

"Sure thing, boss." The clone replied, heading back to Naruto's table.

Then there was nothing for it but to wait. Naruto positioned himself as if he was using the urinal and tried to calm his nerves. He always felt more anxious when he was waiting for something to happen than he did in the middle of a fight.

It felt like hours had passed before the door finally opened. Naruto flushed the toilet and turned to see one of the men from the party stagger into the room. He smiled to himself, as this was just what he had been hoping for.

"Hey, buddy, do you know the time?" Naruto asked.

"Huh? I don't know, kid." The man replied, a little confused. "Could you scoot over, I seriously need to take care of a situation here."

"Yeah, sorry about this. I just needed to know what your voice sounded like." Naruto replied. The man didn't have a chance to react as Naruto sucker punched him. He carefully caught the unconscious body and bound and gagged the man securely before setting him on the toilet and closing the stall door. Then Naruto took a look at himself in the mirror before carefully performing the hand signs for the transformation technique. When he finished, a perfect duplicate of the man he had just knocked out was looking back at him.

"Not bad, kid." Naruto said, trying out the voice. As far as he could tell, it was good enough. He flashed himself a thumbs up in the mirror and plastered a pained look on his face before he ambled back out into the restaurant and made his way over to the partying group.

"Hey," Naruto said, tapping one of the men closest to him on the shoulder, "What's my share of the bill so far?"

"Huh?" The man said, before looking back at him. "About six, seven hundred ryo I guess, but the night is young, man."

"I know, but I ate something that really disagreed with me." Naruto said, clutching at his stomach for emphasis.

"Oh shit, I knew that sushi place was dodgy." The man replied, face paling.

"Could have been, I could just be sick, I guess. I just gotta get home." Naruto said, dropping a wad of bills on the table. "You, uh, might not want to use the bathroom here, if you know what I mean."

The other men at the table made their goodbyes, but nobody seemed eager to get too close or to head out with him, which suited Naruto just fine. He walked out of the bar, carefully not paying too much attention to his clone as he passed by.

Once he was outside, Naruto limited his celebration to a single fist pump. He still had a lot to do tonight, but it was good to know that he was still one of Konoha's trickiest ninja.

ooOoo

Naruto would be the first to admit that he wasn't Konoha's number one ninja for reading maps. That said, he thought the map that Sakura had drawn for him really wasn't that great if you weren't already familiar with the surrounding area. He didn't know where any waterfall was, and the only thing the map really told him was that it was northwest of town.

He spent a few hours wandering around in the dark, wondering if their little adventure was going to end before it really began. It wasn't until the second time he was water-walking across a totally annoying river that he had the bright idea to follow the river in his search for a waterfall.

He was rewarded a few moments later when he heard the roar of a waterfall up ahead. He was about to congratulate himself when a pink haired missile launched herself out of the surrounding woods and latched onto him. Naruto was stunned into inaction for a moment before he collected himself and patted Sakura on the back. When she looked up at him her eyes were bloodshot and she had a look of utter relief on her face.

"You came," Sakura whispered, and Naruto felt a knot of tension he hadn't fully realized was present in his chest melt away, as Sakura certainly wasn't acting like a cold blooded killer. "It took so long, I thought I would have to do everything by myself."

"You know me, I never go back on my word!" Naruto said, as Sakura released him and began leading him through the woods. After a moment, he scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly. "I just had a little trouble finding this place, that was all."

"Oh?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, once Jiraiya was out of the way I got out of town, no problem." Naruto replied. "Hey, how did you manage that? When Itachi sent him a woman under genjutsu the pervert figured it out pretty quick."

"Hm," Sakura said, stopping as they arrived at a clearing next to the waterfall. She spoke a little louder to be heard over the sound of the rushing water. "There was no genjutsu. Mimi is the president of the Snow Country Icha Icha fan club, women's division."

"What?" Naruto asked, shocked that any women would read Jiraiya's books.

"He may be a pervert, but Jiraiya writes good smut. At least that's what I hear." Sakura said, blushing a little bit. "I didn't need to use genjutsu at all, just let Mimi know where to find the mysterious Jiraiya. She even offered to give me her autographed copy of Icha Icha: Fifty Shades of Orange."

"So..." Naruto said, curious but not quite willing to come out and ask how Sakura had responded to the offer.

"Anyway," Sakura said, obviously changing the subject, "You need to get out of those clothes."

"Aha! You are a pervert!" Naruto said, pointing an accusing finger at Sakura.

"Don't be an idiot." Sakura replied, tossing a scroll at Naruto that he caught just before it slammed into his face. "Jiraiya is a seal master, who knows what kind of tracking seals he put on your stuff? There's a complete set of new gear for you sealed in that scroll. While you're at it you should wash under the waterfall with the scent-changing soap, too."

"Hey, I can't just ditch all my stuff!" Naruto said, indignant.

"Look, it's bad enough that we're going to have Jiraiyah tracking us down." Sakura replied, obviously unmoved. "If he has a seal that leads him straight to you, we're not going to get out of Snow Country."

Sakura paused for a moment as a thought struck her. "Actually, he could have put a seal on you, too. Did you get any new tattoos on this training trip?"

"Um, no," Naruto said, flinching as he thought of the seal on his belly. "Jiraiya definitely hasn't put any seals on me."

"Naruto..." Sakura said, a warning tone in her voice. "There's something you're not telling me."

Naruto just returned Sakura's gaze for a moment, then sighed. It was obvious that she wasn't going to let this go. "I do have a seal, but Jiraiya didn't put it on me. So it's no problem. Don't worry about it."

"What? How do you know he can't track you with it anyway? What do you even know about how seals work?" Sakura asked.

"It's not a tracker, it's the seal for the Kyuubi!" Naruto blurted out, annoyed with Sakura for questioning his judgment. Then he realized what he had said and cringed, waiting for Sakura's reaction. She didn't say anything for a moment, and he looked up to see a thoughtful look on her face.

"Huh," Sakura said, "that explains a lot."

She didn't seem inclined to say anything more, and Naruto felt a flash of anger as the secret he had been so worried about sharing was dismissed so casually.

"That's all you have to say?" Naruto asked.

"What? You think I'd treat you any differently?" Sakura said, smiling at Naruto before smacking him lightly on the back of the head. "Don't be stupid."

Naruto just stared at her. Ever since he learned about the demon sealed in his belly, he felt like he was living a lie. Like his friends wouldn't be his friends if they knew the truth about him. To have the secret come out and be accepted so easily... he felt like if he wasn't careful he would just float off into the night sky. After a moment he turned away and wiped his cheek dry where some of the spray from the waterfall must have landed on it.

"There is one other thing." Sakura said, catching Naruto's attention just as he had shucked off his jacket. "I need to know, what are you willing to do to save Sasuke?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"I mean, we're going up against Orochimaru, here." Sakura said. "He-"

"I'm totally ready to kick that snake bastard's ass this time, believe it!" Naruto interrupted.

"That's not what I mean. If everything goes well, we won't even fight Orochimaru at all." Sakura said. "But he has a lot of powerful ninja working for him, and if we slip up at all the whole mission will be a failure and Sasuke could die. What I'm asking you is how far you're willing to go. There aren't going to be any friendships formed on this mission-nobody like Haku or Gaara. All there will be are allies and enemy targets.

"I'm willing to do anything if it will bring Sasuke back. Anything." Sakura continued, her words colored by a fierce certainty as she held her hand out to Naruto. "I need to know, will you do the same?"

"Whatever it takes." Naruto said, softly, clasping her hand. "I'll do whatever it takes to bring Sasuke back. That's a promise."

ooOoo 


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Extended authors notes at the bottom, don't want to spoil anything.

As always, I appreciate all of your reviews. I especially like hearing what works for people, what doesn't, and why.

ooOoo

It was raining in Konoha. Not the kind of pounding rainstorm that sends everybody running for cover and leaves the world feeling refresh afterwards; no, it was the kind of gray, drizzly day that was just downright depressing. Iruka couldn't help but feel that it was appropriate, considering the mood of the village.

Ninja weren't much for spreading secrets, but on the other hand they are quite good at ferreting them out. Despite the official silence on the matter, the village was buzzing with discussion of the three promising young chunin who had disappeared. The rumors weren't quite clear on why they had left-Iruka was more in the know than most and he wasn't even sure what the real situation was-but that didn't stop people from inventing steadily more outlandish theories.

Iruka sighed as he approached the memorial stone and the man who was at the center of many of the rumors came into view. Kakashi Hatake's silver mop of hair stood in defiance of the rain and good grooming while the man himself sat in seiza, all of his attention apparently focused on the memorial. Kakashi had planted himself in this position when the news came in of Naruto's disappearance, and as far as Iruka knew he hadn't moved since.

Iruka had been sent here on a mission from the Hokage, but he would have been headed this way on his own initiative anyway. He and Kakashi weren't exactly friends, but they had bonded over their shared experiences trying to teach Naruto Uzumaki, and Iruka hated to see anybody beating themselves up over something that wasn't their fault.

Iruka paused respectfully as he drew near. An elite ninja like Kakashi must have detected his presence long before, but the man made no move to acknolwedge him. After a moment Iruka coughed into his hand to get Kakashi's attention, but received no response. Finally, he decided to abandon any pretence at a polite conversation.

"The Hokage wants to see you." Iruka said.

"That's nice." Kakashi replied. Whatever might be going through his head, he hadn't lost his annoyingly flippant manner of speaking.

"If you don't come back with me, Lady Hokage is going to have to take official notice of your actions." Iruka said.

"Hmm." Kakashi replied, still not taking his eyes off of the memorial stone.

"Damn it, this isn't healthy." Iruka said. "You need to move on, you can't-"

Iruke cut himself off as Kakashi turned to face him, and he was struck by a feeling of foreboding. It wasn't killing intent exactly, it was just... Iruka already knew, intellectually, that Kakashi could kill him in about three seconds flat if he felt like it, but now he was finding himself dwelling on that fact for some reason. After a few seconds had passed in silence, Kakashi turned back to the memorial. When he spoke, his tone hadn't changed at all.

"Tell the Hokage that I will see her when I see her." Kakashi said.

It was a clear dismissal, and Iruka turned and headed back to the Hokage's tower with his hands in his pockets and his mood in the dumps. He almost said something when another ninja walked past him, obviously intent on speaking to Kakashi, but then shrugged. He'd seen from the forehead protector that the man was from Kusagakure; maybe one of those silver tongued bastards would have better luck talking Kakashi out of his funk.

ooOoo

Sakura had developed a habit over the past year of working in the field of rising with the sun and wringing the most out of every day. Naruto had developed rather the opposite habit in travelling with Jiraiya, who was more likely to be going to sleep in the early morning than waking up. Naruto was also, Sakura thought, a remarkably heavy sleeper for a ninja, as she finally resorted to giving him a quick kick in the ribs.

"Ow! Hey, Sakura, what gives?" Naruto groaned, as he finally started to get up, carefully shimmying his way out of his sleeping bag. The bag was secured to the branch of the tree in which they had spent the night, and getting out of it required that he take a little bit of care not to tumble down to the ground below.

"We need to get moving, Naruto." Sakura said, irritated with the delay. "We don't have any time to waste on sleeping in."

"What's the big rush?" Naruto asked, as he began performing a series of stretches to help get his blood flowing. "The bastard's not going anywhere, right?"

"Naruto! He's not going anywhere because he's been captured by Orochimaru... who knows what that freak is doing to him." Sakura said. "Also, we need to move quickly to avoid any hunter teams Konoha sends after us. Not to mention Jiraiya."

"Oh," Naruto said, then scratched the back of his head in thought. "But, if we're in a hurry, why not just take a toad?"

"Don't be stupid," Sakura replied, "riding a toad across the countryside isn't really a great way to keep a low profile."

"No, no," Naruto protested, "I mean, the toad can just 'poof' us where we're going."

"You've learned entwined reverse summon-autosummoning?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto in disbelief.

"Eh, I think so?" Naruto said. "Sensei just called it the toad-a-port technique. Here, I'll show you."

Naruto bit his thumb and was about to perform the summoning technique when Sakura stopped him. "Wait! If you summon a toad, won't it tell Jiraiya where we are?"

"I don't know. I should check!" Naruto said, then finished performing the hand seals for the technique before Sakura could react. There was a puff of smoke, and when it cleared Sakura saw a small orange toad standing on the tree branch. It only stood about as high as Naruto's knees, and Sakura couldn't help but wonder how he was supposed to be useful as a battle summon.

"Brat! You're alive!" The toad exclaimed. "They said you'd been bewitched by some wicked she-devil and-eep!"

The toad cut himself off when he saw Sakura standing nearby and ducked behind Naruto's legs. After a moment the toad poked his head out from behind Naruto and eyed her warily.

"No, no, it's not like that." Naruto said. "Our friend has been kidnapped and we have go rescue him. We're totally heroes!"

"Are you sure?" The toad whispered, but loudly enough for Sakura to hear it easily. "She's supposed to be some kind of crazy killer."

"Hey! I'm not crazy!" Sakura protested. Both Naruto and the toad just looked at her, and after a moment she sighed. "I have killed some people, but they were all bad. It's not like Jiraiya has totally clean hands either, you know."

"Hmm," the toad replied, "what was so bad about those kids from Iwa, then?"

"Who?" Sakura asked, confused.

"The old pervert said that you killed a bunch of Iwa genin on your last mission." Naruto said, sounding surprisingly serious. "He said Iwagakure was ready to go to war over it, except you had already been declared a missing nin before they even made a fuss."

"But I never..." Sakura said, trailing off as she thought back to that mission. After a moment's thought all the pieces fell into place. "Itachi!"

"What? Where?" Naruto said, looking around wildly until Sakura bopped him on the head.

"Not here, doofus, on my last mission. While I was busy with Itachi's partner Itachi knocked out my team, then killed the Rock ninja." Sakura explained. "One of them got away, but there's no way any genin could really escape from Itachi. He must have let her go, after using genjutsu to make it look like I killed her team."

"Why would he do that?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know." sakura said. "You said it almost started a war, maybe that's what he wants."

"But Itachi's evil scheme was totally foiled by Kabuto's evil scheme!" Naruto said, pumping a fist in triumph.

"Heh, I guess." Sakura said, chuckling. "I don't know that I would have thought of it that way."

"Anyways, you see what I mean, Gamakichi." Naruto said. "We're definitely the heroes here."

There was a pause, and then Naruto snapped his fingers. "Hey, that reminds me, I wanted to ask-do you guys have to tell Jiraiya about me after I summon you?"

"What-I would never rat you out, bro!" Gamakichi protested, vehemently. "But the other guys, it would depend on whether they like you or Jiraiya better."

"I wanted to summon Gamachouyaku." Naruto said.

"Oh, he and Jiraiya go way back. He might not even take you where you want to go, and he'll definitely tell Jiraiya afterwards." Gamakichi said. His tone of voice was so matter of fact that Sakura couldn't doubt the truth of what he was saying. "He actually might not be able to take you where you're going, too. He has to spend some time at the destination meditating before he can self-summon there... something about the natural energy or whatever."

"Man... guess I have to walk." Naruto complained, then straightened up and puffed out his chest. "But no distance is too far for the great Naruto Uzumaki to journey and save his friend! Believe it!"

"You tell 'em, bro!" The toad replied, swept up in the moment. It leaped into the air and exchanged a fist bump with Naruto, disappearing in a puff of smoke before it hit the ground. After he disappeared, Naruto turned and gave Sakura a thumbs-up.

"See, I'm ok to summon the toads that I know." Naruto said. "We just have to stay away from the toads I can't trust."

"Naruto," Sakura said, "how do we know that Gamakichi wasn't just telling you what Jiraiya wants you to hear?"

"It's not like that." Naruto protested. "Summons aren't just tools for the summoner. They're people."

"People lie." sakura replied, unable to keep a trace of bitterness out of her voice as she thought of her betrayal by Kabuto.

"I know." Naruto said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But I know I can trust Gamakichi, just like how I know I can trust you!"

Looking at Naruto's open, smiling face, Sakura couldn't help but smile back at him in return. Dealing with Naruto had a way of turning your world upside down-where most ninja saw trust as a weakness, Naruto turned his trust in other people (and their trust in him) into one of his greatest strengths. She couldn't help but feel that it was only fair that if she was asking Naruto to trust what his instincts had to say about her, she should trust what his instincts were saying about others.

"All right, all right. Hey," Sakura said, as another thought occurred to her, "that's a pretty advanced technique, even if you never learned the right name. What else has Jiraiya been teaching you?"

If she was going to get them through this rescue attempt alive, she needed to know what her team was capable of. She had had a pretty good handle on Naruto's skills before he left the village, but it only stood to reason that he would be a lot stronger after a year of training under the legendary Jiraiya.

"The old pervert won't teach me any cool techniques." Naruto replied, pouting a little bit at what was obviously an old complaint. "He just drilled me on taijutsu and chakra control over and over. It was super boring. I did figure this out though."

Naruto held out his hand and concentrated. A few seconds later a familiar swirling ball of chakra appeared above his palm.

"That's a big improvement. Maybe Jiraiya knows what he's doing." Sakura said.

It really was. Ideally an attack jutsu could be used on an instant's notice to capitalize on any openings. Sakura always made sure that she had achieved that level of mastery before she used a technique in the field, since her whole fighting style was based on finesse, creating opportunities to strike through tiny cracks in her opponent's defenses. With a technique like the Rasengan, though, a few seconds' delay was acceptable-the technique hit with so much power that it created its own openings. It had been a weapon to be respected even when Naruto needed the help of his clones to get it going, and now it was something his opponents would truly fear.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto grumbled, apparently unhappy with mere marginal improvement. "He also had me work on getting better with the summoning technique and using my, um, special chakra."

"Oh. Ohhh," Sakura said, as she realized he was referring to the power provided by the Kyuubi. "Does that let you do anything like Gaara's sand control?"

"No," Naruto said, seeming to get more comfortable discussing the Kyuubi as Sakura kept the discussion technical, "it gives me extra chakra, and makes me faster and stronger, but nothing else. Well, it does make it harder to think straight."

"How can you tell?" Sakura asked, unable to resist teasing her teammate.

"Hey! That's not very nice," Naruto protested, laughing, but quickly sobered up before he continued. "If I take too much of its chakra, I just get angry at everything. All it wants to do is destroy."

"I see. That is a big drawback." Sakura said. And it was. Raw power was nice, but every ninja's greatest weapon was their mind-there was always somebody out there with more power, and if they could outthink you as well, it was going to be a pretty unhappy result. "But, your progress with the Rasengan really is a big deal. You shouldn't just wave it off."

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Definitely." Sakura replied. "It's much better to have one technique you're really good at than a bunch of techniques you can only kind of use."

"I don't know," Naruto said, "all of the Hokage could do like a million techniques."

"You're a long way off from becoming Hokage. When the Hokage were chuunin, how many techniques do you think they knew?" Sakura asked, rhetorically. "Look at Kakashi-he's copied a thousand techniques, but he only ever uses four or five of them in combat most of the time. It's because those are the techniques he knows inside and out."

"Fine." Naruto said, although he didn't sound totally convinced. "It's just, Sasuke can throw fireballs around, you know? And I have to get close enough to punch people to land a hit with this thing."

"True, but one hit is all you need with the Rasengan, no?" Sakura asked. "So, did Jiraiya get you started on elemental techniques yet?"

"He tested me and found out I'm a wind-element type." Naruto said, then crossed his arms and huffed. "He won't teach me any wind techniques until my chakra control is better though."

"Hmm, I think I have a few wind technique scrolls back in Konoha. I've been working on research on ninjutsu design." Sakura said. She felt bad about lying to Naruto, even by omission, but she wanted to keep the jutsu theft squad secret. She trusted Naruto's loyalty, but she couldn't quite trust his discretion. "Once we rescue Sasuke, I can make some copies for you."

"Really?" Naruto asked, breaking into a wide grin. "I'm going to rescue that bastard in no time now, believe it!"

ooOoo

Several hours later, the pair of them had settled into the steady, ground-eating lope favored by ninja for long distance travel. The terrain was growing steadily less mountainous as they made their way to the edge of Snow Country. Sakura estimated that they would be entering Rice Country by the end of the day's journey.

The first sign that something was wrong came when Naruto vanished between one tree and the next. Sakura dropped down into the nearby clearing and looked around. If Naruto had just missed his jump or something he would have made enough noise that she could hear him, but as far as she could tell she was the only person in the forest, which meant... Suiting actions to thoughts, Sakura briefly interrupted her chakra flow, causing the foreign chakra of the genjutsu to lose its grip on her system. Her vision wavered momentarily and when it cleared she saw Kiba leaning against a tree on the other side of the clearing.

"That was pretty quick." Kiba commented as he lazily stood upright. "But you were always pretty smart."

"What- where's Naruto?" Sakura asked, looking around. As far as she could tell, she and Kiba were the only people nearby. His dog, Akamaru, sat at the edge of the clearing, apparently willing to simply sit and observe as Kiba walked toward her. The dog was no longer the tiny puppy Sakura remembered, but while he looked too big to ride on Kiba's head as he used to, he had yet to reach the enormous size of a fully grown Inuzaka dog. Kiba was in a similar state-like many of the boy's in Sakura's year, he had started to go through puberty and stood several inches taller than Sakura, but he still had that gangly look of somebody who had yet to reach full adulthood.

"You shouldn't worry about that idiot, you should worry about yourself." Kiba said, then stopped to look at her with a touch of sympathy in his eyes. "We always got along back in the Academy, so I'm giving you the chance to surrender peacefully. Otherwise, well..."

"You think you can take me in by force?" Sakura said, unable to keep the amusement entirely out of her voice. She would be concerned about taking on Team Eight by herself, but Kiba alone was not an opponent who worried her.

"Don't try to bluff me. They told us about the lies you guys were using to build up your reputation." Kiba replied. "If I need to, I can take you down-I don't even need Akamaru to pitch in."

"Pretty big words from the guy who didn't even make it out of the preliminaries at the chuunin exam." Sakura said, taking a ready stance.

"So that's how it's gonna be." Kiba said, preparing to charge. "Fine, then. Prepare to face the strength of the Inuzaka!"

With that, both of the combatants ran forward. On her second stride, Sakura sent chakra down through her feet to the ground, yanking up a clump of earth that she kicked up into her hands. Once she took hold of it, it quickly settled into the form of a pair of tonfa. A second later, she and Kiba collided.

The taller boy led with a roundhouse punch, which Sakura met with a straight block, stopping his arm cold as it impacted on her weapon. He obviously didn't expect her to meet him force-to-force like that, and he paused for an instant before moving to his follow up attack. Even momentary indecision could be deadly in a ninja battle, and Sakura was quick to show Kiba why.

As he was shifting his weight to prepare for a kick, the tonfa she had used to block was changing form, moving to wrap around Kiba's right wrist. Once it had a solid hold Sakura threw her weight down, pulling him off balance and sending his kick off course. She then lashed out with her other tonfa, hooking it around his plant foot and yanking him off the ground.

Even as he was falling, her tonfa changed form, looking more like a loop around his ankle leading to a handle in her hand. Once Kiba tumbled to the ground she moved to secure his other limbs, and before he was able to react he was securely hogtied, all four limbs held together by chakra-infused earth.

"You saw underneath the facade of our deception." Sakura said, quietly. "But you didn't look further and see that to maintain such a lie requires a certain degree of skill."

Sakura intended to use Kiba as a hostage to draw the rest of Team Eight out of concealment, and so pulled a kunai out of her pouch to hold against his throat as she yanked his head back. Before she could say anything there was a shout from the forest, and the enraged form of Hinata Hyuuga burst into the clearing.

For all of her improvement, Sakura wanted no part of a taijutsu duel with a Hyuuga, so her reaction was instinctive. She dropped Kiba back to the forest floor and sent a fireball in Hinata's direction. The girl had her Byakugan active and could hardly fail to see the technique coming, but her reckless charge would make it hard to get out of the way.

Hinata proved that Sakura had not been the only one training hardover the past year when she planted her feet and went into the whirling motion that was the Hyuuga's signature defensive technique-the kaiten. While she was performing the technique, the chakra emitted from her body would form a perfect barrier, protecting her from all outside attack.

Sakura saw her fireball splash harmlessly against the protection of the kaiten, but of course fire was not Sakura's only element. She quickly sent a burst of chakra down through the earth, moving underneath the technique to soften the ground beneath Hinata's feet. She watched with some satisfaction as her opponent drilled herself into the ground, coming to a halt as the mud around her prevented her from continuing to spin. A few hand signs later, a clone of Sakura rose from the ground next to the Hyuuga heiress, and quickly secured her in bonds of earth.

"Enough of this! Kurenai! Shino! Show yourselves!" Sakura called out, bringing her hand up to Kiba's head and collecting a small amount of medical chakra in her palm, just enough to create the distinctive green glow. "You can try another genjutsu, but I don't even have to move to kill your precious students now! All I have to do is think the wrong thought."

The clearing was silent for a moment, as Sakura shifted herself to be closer to her clone. Just as she was beginning to consider sending her clone out to look for Naruto, the leader of Team Eight melted out of the forest in front of her. Sakura could see the anger in Kurenai's normally placid demeanor, and more importantly could see Naruto held in front of her, apparently asleep and unaware of the kunai at his throat. Shino followed behind her, his face as expressionless as always behind his dark sunglasses.

"It seems we are at an impasse." Kurenai said.

"I didn't kill anybody." Sakura said. She wanted to tell her story to at least one authority figure, for what good it would do her. "Kabuto faked his own death, kidnapped Sasuke, and framed me."

"If that's true, you should come back to the village." Kurenai replied. "Running only makes you look guilty."

"Tsch, come back and have a nice little chat with Ibiki, while nobody does anything to rescue Sasuke?" Sakura said. "Not likely."

"Nobody ever said that doing your duty to Konoha would be easy." Kurenai replied.

"My duty? You expect me to stay loyal to a system when a traitor worked his way into the Hokage's inner circle?" Sakura said, shaking her head. "No, Naruto and I are going to save Sasuke and come back to the village with proof of what happened. Believe it!"

"And that is where we are at an impasse. Because while you may hold my students hostage, I am certainly not letting Naruto go." Kurenai said. "Eventually another team will come along to check on us, and things will not go well for you."

"That's where you're wrong." Sakura said, drawing another kunai and placing it against Kiba's throat. "You forget, I was there the last time Naruto was seriously injured. I know who he is, and what he is capable of. I think you know it too."

Kurenai's eyes widened slightly, but her voice was steady as she replied. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that if you slit Naruto's throat, you'll just be breaking him out of your genjutsu. I don't think you can handle what that would unleash. You're holding a lit exploding tag-I on the other hand," Sakura said, tracing the kunai across Kiba's throat, pressing down just hard enough to draw blood, "am holding two hostages."

"You wouldn't..." Kurenai said, though there was doubt in her voice. "That would be unforgiveable."

"Don't you understand! The only thing that matters to me is saving Sasuke." Sakura said, trying to communicate her conviction to Kurenai. "If that means I have to throw away my chance to return to Konoha, then I will. If it means I'll have to crawl over a pile of bodies to rescue him, then that's what I will do."

Kurenai seemed to shrink back a little bit, and Sakura felt a surge of triumph. "You're ready to just walk away from here and what, trust my word not to chase you?"

"I'll leave a clone behind to keep an eye on you." Sakura replied. "Once it melts away, you're free to try to track us down again. If you try to leave early, well, it'll just be you and Shino trying to track us."

"Why should I trust you?" Kurenai asked.

"Trust that if you don't let Naruto go, Kiba and Hinata are definitely going to die." Sakura replied, keeping her voice level. "Probably you and Shino too."

There was a pause that seemed to Sakura to stretch on forever before Kurenai shook her head and released Naruto, giving him a shove toward Sakura as she released him from the genjutsu.

"Oh man, what a dream-hey Kiba, what's-Sakura, what's going on?" Naruto asked, obviously alarmed to see Sakura holding Kiba at knifepoint.

"We're getting out of here, Naruto." Sakura said.

"But Sakura, what-" Naruto said, before she interrupted.

"Not now, I'll explain what happened later." Sakura said. She held Naruto's gaze until he backed down. "Just keep heading east, I'll catch up with you."

Naruto nodded and leapt out of the clearing. Sakura turned her focus to the creation of another clone to take her place, but was unable to resist making one more comment to Kurenai.

"You underestimated us."

"It won't happen again." Kurenai replied, voice level.

"You won't catch us a second time." Sakura said.

"You should not underestimate our team either." Shino spoke for the first time.

Sakura inclined her head slightly in response, conceding the point before she left to rejoin her teammate.

ooOoo

The next morning found Sakura and Naruto walking along the roads of Rice Country. They were dressed in simple peasant's clothing, topped off with straw hats that kept the sun out of their eyes and their faces out of sight. They each had a sack of rice slung over their shoulder as they ambled down the road.

All of their non-essential gear had been stashed at an abandoned farmhouse. With Orochimaru in charge of Otogakure such houses were depressingly easy to find as families fled their homes or were abducted for Orochimaru's use. Sakura would have liked to believe the family that used to occupy their temporary base had fled, but the clothes and furniture left behind argued otherwise.

The way forward for her and Naruto was simple, but difficult. It was incredibly unlikely that they would stumble upon Otogakure by sneaking through the country, but quite likely that they would run into some Otogakure shinobi by walking along the road. The plan was to do their best to look like simple farmers, and then ambush whoever confronted them first-patrols looking for foreigners, Oto's "tax collection" teams, whoever.

Once they had prisoners they would be one step closer to finding Sasuke. In the mean time, it made for a lot of slow and boring walking.

"Hey, Sakura?" Naruto asked, unable to stay silent. "Are you sure Hinata and them won't catch up to us?"

"For the last time, yes." Sakura said, huffing a little bit in frustration. "The Hokage has very strict standing orders for all Konoha shinobi to stay out of Rice Country absent direct orders to the contrary."

Sakura had been offended on Sasuke's behalf when Kakashi had first reported the order to the then-newly formed jutsu theft squad, thinking that they represented a lack of trust in her teammate. Kakashi had just favored her with an amused smile before explaining that it was a village-wide order.

"I don't understand." Naruto said. "That guy killed the Hokage and we're just leaving him alone?"

"Not exactly, it's more that the Hokage doesn't want to risk losing people one by one to Orochimaru. She thinks he'll take a personal interest in any Konoha teams that show up." Sakura explained. "Kakashi told me that she said that the next Konoha team that enters Rice Country will be the one that destroys Otogakure."

"Hey, that's us!" Naruto said. "Man, that would be awesome, destroying that whole evil village."

"Don't be stupid." Sakura replied, though she couldn't keep a small smile from forming in the face of Naruto's infectious enthusiasm. "We're just going to get Sasuke and get out of here as quick as we can."

They fell into a companionable silence after that as they continued down the road. After a while Naruto spoke up again, more hesitantly than before.

"Hey, back there," he said, waving his hand vaguely back over his shoulder, "you were threatening Hinata and Kiba, weren't you?"

"Yes," Sakura said, keeping her voice level. "It was the only way to get Kurenai to let you go."

Naruto chewed on his lip for a minute, working up the courage to ask his next question. Sakura waited as patiently as she could, but she felt some worry in her gut about where this was going.

"But, if Kurenai didn't do what you said, you wouldn't have hurt them, right?" Naruto asked, a note of pleading in his voice.

"I don't know." Sakura said, thinking back to that moment. She knew Hinata and Kiba, she considered them to be friends. But in that terrible moment, with one teammate in immediate danger and the other imprisoned, she had felt nothing but a driving need to save them. The world had narrowed down to nothing more than her mission and obstacles that stood in her way. She was thankful that Kurenai hadn't called her bluff, but she still wasn't sure if she had been bluffing. Bringing her thoughts back to the present, she shook her head. "I just don't know."

The silence they fell into following her statement was noticeably less companionable than before, and Sakura found herself at a loss for words. It was almost a relief when a pair of Sound shinobi stepped out of the woods to bar their way.

"Good afternoon, trash." The red-headed girl who seemed to be the leader of the two man troop spoke first. "We'll be happy to let you pass, just as soon as you make a little donation to Lord Orochimaru. Keeping these roads clear of bandits isn't free, you know."

Sakura bit her tongue to keep from pointing out the contradiction between the Sound team's words and behavior. She wasn't here to score debating points. Beside her she saw Naruto tense up, but he at least avoided setting himself in a combat stance.

"Good afternoon to you, too." Sakura said, doing her best to sound non-confrontational. "We'd be happy to-"

Without pausing in her speech, she dropped the bag she was carrying and lunged towards the girl, burying her fist in her solar plexus. Unfortunately there was a puff of smoke and the downed form of her opponent was replaced by a log. One part of her mind noted that Naruto had engaged the male shinobi in combat while the rest of her focused on locating the redhead.

Suddenly flute music came floating across the road, incongruous in the context of the ongoing battlefield. Sakura found herself listening to it, finding something intriguing about the melody... until she came to her senses and slipped out of the genjustsu. When her senses cleared, she saw the other girl standing not thirty feet away from her, playing the flute.

Sakura sent a spread of kunai her way. The girl dodged them easily, only briefly pausing in her music. Sakura found it easier to ignore the music as she planned out the rest of the battle. Genjutsu was a fearsome weapon, but it was much more effective when used from ambush. Stopping to play a flute on the battlefield was the most obvious way Sakura had yet seen to telegraph the application of a genjutsu, and Sakura was nearly impossible to trap in illusions when she was on guard. Sakura frowned-on second thought, it was hard to imagine anybody being given a field command if their strategems were that obvious.

Sakura didn't hesitate to bite down on the inside of her cheek, hard. The pain snapped her out of the illusion and revealed the other girl to be charging towards her, prepared to land a knock-out haymaker. Sakura responded with a roundhouse kick, snapping her opponent's head back and sending her tumbling to the ground.

"Your layered illusions are cute, but it will take more than that to defeat me." Sakura said. There was no reason to pass up an opportunity to anger her opponent.

"Is that so?" The other girl asked, chuckling. "I guess it has been too long since I've had a chance to cut loose."

With that Sakura felt a wave of dark power emanating from the girl and a series of dark marks began crawling along her skin. Sakura sent a fireball at her to disrupt her transformation, but she easily dodged back out of the way. As she landed she brought a hand down to the ground, and there was a puff of smoke that obscured her form.

When the smoke cleared, Sakura saw three enormous figures standing between her and the Sound kunoichi. Her first instinct was to attempt to dispel a genjutsu, but her efforts had no effect. The other girl grinned at her before bringing her flute back to her lips. As she played, the monstrous figures moved forward in time with the music. Sakura had only a brief moment to plan as they approached.

The lead summon attacked with a horizontal swipe of the massive club in its hand. Sakura was able to leap over the weapon, forming a string of hand seals in mid-air. When she landed she slapped her hand down on the ground, activating the quicksand technique at her opponent's location.

As Sakura expected, the other girl easily leapt back out of range of the trap technique. With another instant of concentration, Sakura formed an earth clone in the place where the trap had been. It wasn't something she would usually be able to do at such a distance, but having the earth super-saturated with her chakra made it possible. She paid for her use of the technique though, taking a bone-jarring hit from the second summon.

Sakura dodged out of the way of the next strike, and the game was on. It was hard to focus on all three opponents at once, and she wished she could anticipate their moves based on the flute music she heard, but she knew she would only have to keep it up for a short while. She managed to dodge a few more strikes before the musci cut off with a squawk.

Sakura smiled as she landed among the suddenly immobile summons. Her clone had maneuvered itself underground to her opponent's position, and yanked the other girl underground. To make sure of cutting off the music the clone had pulled the bottom half of her face underground, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at the sight. Her opponent was glaring bloody murder at her, but there wasn't much she could do from her position.

Or so Sakura thought. There was a second, even more disconcerting wave of power released as the girl's skin turned dark, her hair grew out, and a pair of horns sprouted on her head. Sakura couldn't help but feel the first stirrings of fear, wondering what on earth she had gotten herself into. Her opponent glared at her as she ripped free of the imprisonment using nothing but brute strength.

"I can't believe trash like you has forced me to use this technique." The girl snarled, bringing the flute back to her lips. "Enjoy the sight of such power, because it's the last thing you're going to see."

Sakura was strongly considering switching to more lethal techniques to deal with the situation when a red blur crashed into her opponent, sending her tumbling to the ground. When the two stopped moving Sakura saw Naruto, wrapped in some kind of red haze, grappling with the demonic form of the Sound kunoichi. Even being in contact with the red chakra seemed to harm the other girl, forcing down the unnatural power fueling her own transformation. When she reverted back to her original state she passed out from the sudden loss of power.

Naruto jumped back, and the chakra shroud around him receded, revealing the familiar form of her goofy teammate. Sakura chewed her lip as she looked at Naruto contemplatively. That power... it was one thing to hear it described, but another thing to see it in action. After a moment she realized that Naruto was looking at her as if he expected some kind of judgment.

"Good work." Sakura said, not quite sure what to say. Apparently she chose the right thing, as he brightened up and relaxed. "You took care of her partner?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, "he was persistent, but not nearly as powerful. She was really spooky."

Sakura nodded, then pulled out her bingo book. A ninja capable of a transformation that powerful should be on record, and something about the other kunoichi had tickled at the back of her mind. She nodded sharply as she found the right page.

"Tayuya of the Sound Four. She was one of the four that held up the barrier while Orochimaru fought the Sandaime." Sakura read. She saw Naruto's expression darken as he heard the news, and hoped he wouldn't do anything rash. He had been close with the old Hokage. "Captured by Konoha attempting to secure the defection of Sasuke Uchiha, escaped a week later along with her teammates, apparently as the result of inside help... Kabuto."

Naruto looked a little taken aback at the vehemence in Sakura's voice as she hissed out Kabuto's name, but he refrained from commenting as she thrust the bingo book back in her pack and moved to secure the prisoners for transport. He'd known Sakura for long enough to keep his mouth shut when she had that look in her eye.

ooOoo

Tayuya woke to find herself face to face with the annoying pink-haired kunoichi. She immediately attempted to attack her opponent, only to find herself unable to move. After a moment of futile struggling she paused to take stock of her situation.

She was in a room that showed the simple, sturdy construction of a Rice Country farmhouse, an impression that was confirmed by the rice paddy visible through the window she was facing. The room had been stripped bare of its furniture, and the room's only door was closed. Tayuya herself was secured against one wall of the room, her arms tied above her head to keep her in a standing position. She felt an itching sensation against her neck and a strange disassociation from her own chakra that suggested some kind of restraining seal had been placed over her curse seal.

The other girl remained silent as Tayuya looked around, waiting until their eyes met to speak up.

"Hello there, Tayuya." She said, her voice surprisingly cheerful. "My name is Sakura Haruno, and I have a few questions for you."

Tayuya knew she was in a bad spot. She recognized the other girl's name, and if even half the stories were true then tied up and at her mercy was a very bad place to be. Still, she drew some comfort from the fact that Konoha ninja were all soft: the things Orochimaru considered to be valuable anti-interrogation training were probably more extreme than any but the most battle-hardened Leaf ninja would employ.

Her first move, as always, was to try to get under her opponent's skin. An angry ninja is a sloppy ninja.

"Let me save you some time and give you the answer for all of them at once: go fuck yourself!" Tayuya snarled, and then spat in Sakura's face for good measure.

Sakura's hand snapped up and the little ball of spit stopped, floating in the air in front of her palm in a casual display of chakra control. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the loogie onto the floor by Tayuya's feet. The whole time the look on her faqce didn't change, remaining set in a slightly detached expression. Tayuya felt a chill run down her spine-this was the face of a professional torturer.

Sakura's expression remained serene as she drew a kunai and slammed it down into Tayuya's thigh. The part of her mind not occupied with the pain of being stabbed was surprised-she had expected more psychological games before they moved on to the sharp implements. Maybe the other girl wasn't as implacable as she appeared.

"Maybe you don't understand the situation. Nobody is coming to your rescue. You belong to me." Sakura said. If she was angry, it wasn't audible in her voice. She sounded like she was discussing the weather. "I will ask you questions. If you refuse to answer, I will hurt you. If you lie to me, I will hurt you. And if you are disrespectful, I will hurt you."

"I understand," Tayuya said, through her clenched teeth, "that you're wasting my time, pinkie. You should go do something useful with your mouth like polishing blondie's little kunai-"

Anything else Tayuya was going to say was cut off with a gasp as Sakura gripped the kunai and twisted, causing Tayuya to experience a temporary white-out from the pain. When she came back to her senses, she saw Sakura standing a few paces away, tapping the bloody kunai thoughtfully against her other arm. She could feel her leg wound bleeding, and thought she was already feeling a little light-headed.

Despite the pain, Tayuya felt a small surge of triumph. If she was unconscious or dead, she couldn't give any information away.

"You really are making this hard on yourself. Trying to take the easy way out?" Sakura asked thoughtfully, before taking a step forward. Her hand glowed with green chakra, and Tayuya watched as the wound knitted shut before her eyes. When Sakura took a step away, the skin was whole and unblemished.

"This session ends when I say it ends. You will not be allowed to die without permission." Sakura said. She appeared completely unruffled by the course of the interrogation so far. "Every cut, every burn, will have the same intensity as the first, since your nerves will be fully repaired in between. Are you starting to understand what's going on?"

ooOoo

Sakura saw Naruto flinch as Tayuya arched her back in pain. The Sound kunoichi was tied up as securely as she could manage-each individual finger was secured to prevent independent motion, her limbs were tightly restrained, and she even had a gag in her mouth to prevent her from biting her tongue. A pillow had been placed under her head so that she couldn't slam it against the floor, and overall she could move no more than a few inches as she thrashed around.

Sakura would be the first to admit that she wasn't the ideal interrogator. She was a little too impulsive and her temper was a little too easily triggered. Intellectually, she knew what to do, but she just didn't have the naturally stoic demeanor of a really top notch T&I specialist. Fortunately, Kakashi had taught her a genjutsu that allowed her to get around the problem.

It wasn't particularly useful in combat, as it didn't interrupt the enemy's control of their body, and could be broken by actual pain. However, it was not broken by the pain caused by the illusion-as long as the restraints kept Tayuya from hurting herself, genjutsu-Sakura could inflict as much pain as she liked on her captive. Even better, genjutsu-Sakura operated at a level of remove from Sakura herself that allowed her to maintain a calm facade no matter what the subject tried to do.

Tayuya hissed again in pain, and Sakura saw Naruto finally lose his patience. He shook his head and stood, striding angrily across the room to look out the window, apparently unable to watch any further. Sakura waited until she was at a good stopping point where the illusion would no longer require her direct control-Tayuya had been nailed to the wall with kunai while the illusionary Sakura left the room to get a drink of water-and walked over to her teammate.

"This is wrong, what we're doing." Naruto said as she drew near. She met his gaze, seeing the pain in his eyes as he examined her, looking for something.

"We need to know what she knows, if we're going to save Sasuke." Sakura said. It was true. They had captured Tayuya's partner as well, but she was clearly the higher ranking of the two, and would possess the most valuable information. Right now they needed everything they could get-they didn't even know where Otogakure was located.

"We're the good guys, Sakura." Naruto insisted. "We shouldn't be hurting people who can't fight back."

Sakura looked at her teammate, surprised. She could kind of understand where he was coming from-she wasn't completely comfortable with inflicting pain on a helpless prisoner-but being a ninja meant she had to do a lot of things she wasn't comfortable with. She involuntarily flinched as she remembered the sensation of medical chakra tearing through flesh and bone, watching the life seep out of her opponent, and a brief glimpse at the fourteen names on her own personal memorial stone.

But at the end of the day, the choice between inflicting pain on an enemy or risking a comrade's life was no choice at all. That wasn't just Sakura's opinion, that was the considered judgment of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"The village has a whole department dedicated to Torture and Interrogation." Sakura said. "Remember Ibiki, from the chuunin exams?"

"Yeah, but..." Naruto paused, gathering his thoughts. "It shouldn't be like that. There has to be a better way!"

"Tayuya is going to be a tough nut to crack. Orochimaru doesn't hand out those crazy seals to just anybody, you know." Sakura said, folding her arms over her chest. "You think if we just ask her nicely, she'll lead us to her boss?"

Naruto had nothing to say in reply, and she continued. "If we don't get the information we need, there's no way we can rescue Sasuke. He's going to be stuck as a prisoner until Orochimaru is ready for whatever sick experiment he's going to do with the Sharingan. You said you were willing to do whatever it takes to Sasuke-did you mean that?"

"Of course! I don't go back on my word." Naruto said, then looked down. "I just wish we could do something else."

Sakura felt her heart break a little at the obvious pain in Naruto's voice. She stepped forward and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. When he looked up and met her eyes she gave him a small smile.

"It's ok that you don't like doing this kind of thing-I don't exactly enjoy it myself." She said. "Why don't you go outside and help your clones stand guard? There's no need to come back until dinner time."

Naruto's face openly displayed his emotions as he wrestled with her offer, wavering for a moment before settling in a resolute expression.

"No," Naruto said, shaking his head. "If we have to do this to complete our mission, I'm not going to pretend that it's not happening. Lying to myself is not my ninja way."

Sakura held his gaze for a long moment. Seeing nothing but sincerity in his eyes, she nodded and lead him back to their prisoner. She had a feeling this was going to be a long day.

ooOoo

A long five days later, Sakura and Naruto sat around the kitchen table putting the finishing touches on their plan. Sakura would have liked to take more time to think things through, but Tayuya had inadvertently let them know they were working on a deadline. Due to the time dilation caused by being almost constantly held under genjutsu, their captive thought she had been under interrogation for a week and had recently let slip that the village would be on alert now that her squad had failed to report in "yesterday" as expected.

Other than that they had obtained the location of the village and a rough map of the first two levels. That information checked out with what was provided by Tayuya's subordinate. She had provided some other bits and pieces of information that Sakura was unable to corroborate, along with some obvious lies about Sasuke's willingness to join Orochimaru that Sakura didn't bother to relay to Naruto.

One of the advantages of their relative dearth of information was that, while they didn't have much time to plan, they didn't really have much they could plan for. Sasuke was almost certain to be in the lower three levels of Otogakure, the areas not accessible to most of the shinobi force. They were going to have to play this by ear once they were inside the enemy village.

Finally Sakura was satisfied that they had planned out as much as they could. Standing, she stretched out her back before drawing a kunai and heading back into the room with their captives.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Tying up loose ends." Sakura said, meeting his eyes evenly. She wasn't exactly eager to kill their prisoners, but she knew she couldn't show any hesitation in front of Naruto.

"Tying up-you mean you're going to kill them?" Naruto asked, clearly horrified.

Sakura nodded in response, and Naruto actually recoiled backwards. His shock only lasted for a moment before he rebounded, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"Absolutely not! We're not going to just kill somebody in cold blood." Naruto said.

Sakura was again a little bewildered by his reaction. She thought it had been clear from the moment she outlined the plan that the Sound ninja they captured would not be surviving past their usefulness to the two of them. She could understand discomfort in the face of the more vigorous methods of interrogation, but this was just a simple matter of making sure an enemy was out of the picture.

"Naruto, you don't understand," Sakura tried to explain, "we've gotten all the information we can out of them, and it's just common sense not to leave enemies running around who know your plans. Oh, and who probably want revenge."

Naruto might be strong enough to knock out his enemies and go about his business, but Sakura really didn't want to have people running around who knew her fighting style.

Naruto stared at her, obviously unmoved, and Sakura tried another tack. "Didn't you say you agreed to do whatever it takes to rescue Sasuke?"

"I said I would do whatever I had to do. This isn't something we have to do, it's something we want to do." Naruto said, crossing his arms. "When you kill someone, you take away everything they have, and everything they're ever gonna have. I won't agree to it just to 'tie up loose ends.'"

Sakura stared at him for a moment, but it was clear that he would not be moved.

"Fine! We'll let them live." Sakura said, throwing up her hands in frustration. "I think I have enough knockout drops to keep them under for a couple days, and after that I guess it won't matter. But if Tayuya ever comes after me seeking vengeance, I'm totally blaming you."

Naruto broke into a wide smile, and Sakura felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She hadn't had to kill anybody in cold blood yet, and she was just as happy not to have to make today the day she finally did. And really, even with her curse seal active, Tayuya had only been as challenging as she was because Sakura had been trying for a capture rather than a kill. It was nice to think that she might be strong enough now that she could sometimes choose to show mercy.

Naruto looked like he was about to speak, but before he could say anything another voice floated into the room.

"Maa, look at my cute little students, all grown up and dealing with moral dilemmas." Kakashi stepped into view from where he had been hidden in shadow. Naruto's response was to immediately fall into a defensive stance, ready to fight off any attempts at capture. Sakura responded with a smile.

"Sensei! You got my letter?" she asked, receiving a nod in return. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, my mission is to drag my students back to Konoha." Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head thoughtfully. "If I return with just two out of three, that would make me trash, wouldn't it?"

ooOoo

OMAKE: Team Seven

NARRATOR: One year ago, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. The team promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Elemental Countries underground. Today, still wanted by the village of Konoha, they survive as soldiers of fortune.

_Featuring: Sakura "Face" Haruno_

::Cut to two disreputable looking men having a heated conversation in an alley. After a moment they settle down and shake hands. One of them walks off. Once he's gone, there is a puff of smoke and the remaining man is replaced by a pink-haired teenage girl, who raises a fist in triumph.::

Sakura: Shannaro!

_Naruto "Howling Mad" Uzumaki_

::Cut to Naruto surrounded by a red chakra cloak as he tears through a horde of bandits. As he attacks, the men are flung aside and roll on the ground, clearly unconscious.::

_Sasuke "B.A." Uchiha_

::Cut to Sasuke and Naruto, standing in a room.::

Sasuke: I told you, I'm not riding on any stupid toad.

Naruto: Oh, I know that. I would never try to get you to ride on a toad. It's just, I have this extra juicy tomato and I thought you might want it...

Sasuke: I do like tomatoes...

::Cut to an enormous toad leaping across the landscape. Naruto is standing on its head and whooping with excitement. Sasuke, unconscious, is tied in place on the toad's back.::

_And Kakashi "Kakashi" Hatake_  
::Cut to a room where Kakashi is reading his little orange book. There's a pause. Then another pause. Finally, Kakashi looks up at the camera.::

Kakashi: Did you say something?

NARRATOR: If you have a problem, if noone else can help, and you can find them, maybe you can hire... Team Seven.

ooOoo

A/N: Just to anticipate what I expect to be the lightning rod issues:

- The torture thing. Konoha does canonically have a Torture & Interrogation department, but of course we never really see it in action. I think Sakura's position here is pretty solidly in the canon mainstream (basically it's ok in ticking time bomb cases, or really important cases, and use is constrained by practicalities and personal squeamishness rather than morality), I'm really not trying for any bonus edginess here. With Naruto I'm shooting not for Ninja Jesus, but maybe Ninja William Wilberforce-I think anybody in canon Konoha who has a moral objection to torture is going to be viewed kind of like how mainstream society views the guys who want US soldiers reading Miranda rights on the battlefield.

- Power-level wise, what I'm trying to do with Naruto is take where he winds up shortly after the timeskip, and pro-rate his development evenly over time. So instead of learning nothing from the training trip and then perfecting the rasenshuriken over a weekend, there's a steady improvement of skill that gets him to where that kind of thing is plausible. I think a one-handed rasengan is plausible after a year and change of work on it.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I updated the previous chapter, tweaking the ending a little bit and adding an omake. No need to reread it if you've read it already.

As always, I appreciate all reviews. I especially like hearing what worked for you, what didn't, and why.

ooOoo

After Kakashi declared his intention to help them in their mission, Sakura felt her stomach unclench for the first time in a long time, and she didn't even try to hide the smile that spread across her face. Next to her, Naruto broke into a grin, and although she couldn't see it under the mask, she knew that Kakashi was smiling as well.

The former members of Team Seven stood there smiling at each other for a while before Naruto finally cleared his throat and broke the silence. "So, sensei, what do we do now?"

"Well, I was going to ask Sakura the same thing." Kakashi replied. "After all, she is the one who invited me to meet up with you guys."

Sakura felt a small burst of pride at the fact that Kakashi was letting her take the lead in planning Sasuke's rescue. She didn't doubt that he would offer advice if he thought her plan could be improved, but it was nice to have her old teacher acknowledge her worth in such a way.

She wasted no time in bringing Kakashi up to speed on what she and Naruto were thinking. She walked him through the information they had gathered from their prisoners, the courses of action they had considered and rejected, and finally took him step by step through their plan.

"So, you see we think we've figured out how to get the two of us into the village. Then we'll create a distraction," Sakura said, before pausing as a thought struck her. "Hey, Naruto, when you make a shadow clone does it copy your exploding tags?"

"Let's find out!" Naruto announced, and brought his hands together to perform the shadow clone technique. Before he could finish forming the distinctive hand seal, he was interrupted by Kakashi placing a hand on his shoulder.

"If you focus on copying the tag, you will create a functional copy." Kakashi explained. "However, the chakra cost is prohibitive, even for you. If we had time I would teach you the exploding clone technique, but for a mission tomorrow it's better to use these."

With that, Kakashi reached under his vest and dropped a packet of exploding tags on the table. Sakura flinched back a little when they landed with a solid 'thud,' as she had never seen that many of them in one place at the same time. The destructive potential represented by the stack of what had to be at least sixty tags was simply immense.

Kakashi paused for a moment, then reached into another pocket and pulled out his little orange book. He withdrew his bookmark and carefully dog-eared the page he was reading, before letting the bookmark go. It drifted back and forth before landing gently in front of Sakura, where she could see that it was yet another explosive note. Grimacing, she used the clean end of a chopstick to drag the former bookmark over to Naruto's spot at the table, making a mental note to burn the chopstick before going to bed.

"Sometimes people think it's clever to steal my reading material as a distraction." Kakashi said, shrugging.

"Anyway," Sakura said, doing her best to get back on topic, "we'll create a distraction, and get Sasuke out during the confusion. I was thinking maybe you could make sure Orochimaru doesn't interfere."

"Well, your faith in your old sensei is touching." Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head in thought. "But if it comes down to it, I do have a couple of new tricks to keep the old man busy."

"You'll totally kick his ass!" Naruto announced. Kakashi waved his hand dismissively, but Sakura noticed that he straightened up a little bit with pride, and she could feel a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. They had most of their team together and ready to go rescue the missing member. The only thing left to do was get a good night's rest.

ooOoo

A few hours later, Sakure found herself lying in bed, unable to sleep. She considered using her knock out drugs to put herself under, but quickly discarded the idea-chemically induced sleep was not particularly restful, and was not a great form of preparation for a big mission. Grumbling, Sakura threw on her usual dress and headed outside in the hopes that a walk would clear her head.

As she finished pacing around the farm house that was serving as their temporary base of operations, Sakura stopped in surprise when she saw a figure leaned up against the front door. She relaxed when a second glance revealed the familiar form of Kakashi, apparently absorbed in reading his little orange book.

She couldn't help but send a glare at the man, even though she knew it was a little unfair to blame him for the emotional turmoil that was keeping her from sleeping. Back when she was by herself she had had no choice but to focus only on putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward without much thought for the big picture. Even after she recruited Naruto she had kept herself tightly under control, knowing that Naruto was relying on her to lead their little team to success in their self-appointed mission. With Kakashi's arrival she was finally able to relax, which had the ironic result of allowing all of her old fears and doubts run rampant through her head.

"Trouble sleeping?" Kakashi asked. Though his gaze remained fixed on his book, his tone of voice conveyed some genuine concern. Sakura knew that this was about as close as Kakashi got to nurturing behavior.

"I'm worried," Sakura admitted, closing to a comfortable conversational distance.

"We're infiltrating Orochimaru's base tomorrow. I'd be worried if you weren't worried." Kakashi replied.

"It's not that. Well, it's partly that," Sakura said, waving a hand aimlessly as she tried to explain herself, "but also... how do you know if you're a good person?"

"Maa, when did you kids stop asking easy questions?" Kakashi asked. "You know that once you put on one of these you're not exactly destined for a monk's life of spiritual contemplation."

Kakashi tapped his forehead protector as he spoke, then sighed as he put his book away. Leaning forward, he captured Sakura's gaze with his visible eye before speaking again. "What brought this question on, exactly?"

Instead of trying to explain directly the whirlwind of feelings that was running through her mind, Sakura began by telling Kakashi about her actions since Kabuto abducted her from the village. Once she started talking, she found she couldn't stop. It felt more like a confession than anything else as she told Kakashi about all of her thoughts and fears. She left nothing out, narrating her unauthorized assassination in Grass Country, recruitment of Naruto, the fight with Team Eight, and the capture and subsequent interrogation of the Sound shinobi. When she finished talking, Kakashi leaned back and thought for a moment before he spoke.

"Konoha's policy is that an act is good if it benefits the village, and bad if it hurts the village. But nobody can live their life that way. Nobody fights and dies just because they love the village so much-they do it for their friends, for their teammates." Kakashi said. He was looking at Sakura, but she had a feeling that he was seeing something in his memory. "Sometimes you do things to help your friends that you don't enjoy-"

"But that's just it!" Sakura interrupted. "I did enjoy it! When Kurenai backed down and let Naruto go, I felt happy. I had a kunai at the throat of one of my old classmates and I was happy. What kind of a monster feels that way?"

Sakura was a little ashamed to feel tears trickling down her cheek as she laid out her deepest fears in front of her sensei. This was what had really been bothering her, though, and she wanted an answer more than she wanted to stay composed in front of Kakashi: all this time she had been breaking the law and doing things she knew were wrong, she felt a little bad about it, but she also felt a sense of triumph when her plans worked out. How could a good person feel good about doing bad things?

"Sakura..." Kakashi said, then tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Did you feel happy because you were threatening Kiba?"

Sakura blinked, then shook her head.

"Did you enjoy torturing your prisoner, or were you just happy when you extracted useful information?" Kakashi continued.

"Happy to get the information." Sakura replied, mind racing as she started to see where Kakashi was going with his questions.

"Look, it's only natural to be happy when a plan comes together." Kakashi said. "After I finished my first solo S-rank mission, I escaped by way of the fortress's sewer system. It was one of the happiest moments of my life, but that doesn't mean I enjoy swimming through sh-"

"Sensei!" Sakura reprimanded Kakashi for his language, before breaking into a fit of giggles prompted both by the mental image he was painting and by a sudden release of tension. "So..."

"So, you should worry if you think you're enjoying the bad things and just making up excuses for why you need to do them." Kakashi said. "But if you're doing something important like saving your teammates, it's ok to be happy, no matter what else is going on around you."

"Thanks, sensei." Sakura said. She felt the nervous tension leaving her body as she spoke. Of course, as she was thinking that she felt a new tension appear in her stomach as she thought about the upcoming mission. Everything she did, she did to save Sasuke. If they failed now, it would all be for nothing.

ooOoo

The Village Hidden by Sound was not really a village at all, though it was well hidden. It was more in the nature of a military base, sunk into the ground underneath a small natural cave complex located well off the main road. It was populated only by ninja loyal to Orochimaru.

Konohagakure had once been much the same, Sakura knew. She had read in the history books of the times shortly after the establishment of the village, when it was populated only by the founding clans. Hidden in the middle of the forest and led by the world's greatest Mokuton user, it was impossible for any of Konoha's enemies to even catch site of her walls.

Over time, the village grew stronger, and the need for secrecy was outweighed by the money saved by allowing a road (however winding and twisted) to be bulit connecting to the capital. Along with the road came civilian immigrants, eager to work in the village populated by the Daimyo's new elite-and well paid-military forces. The village kept growing as Konoha shinobi kept proving themselves on the battlefield, until it became the economic and military powerhouse of Sakura's time.

She had a hard time imagining something similar happening with Otogakure. Under Orochimaru's leadership it seemed more eager to plunder the Land of Rice than protect it. Of course, at the moment her imagination was focused on maintaining the tranformation technique that had her looking exactly like Tayuya.

The infiltration plan was simple, and was actually Naruto's idea. While Sakura had been trying to figure out the best way to tunnel into the base and escape detection, Naruto pointed out that they had two ninja in hand that were expected to report back home soon. After talking it over, they figured it would be easier to break into the restricted areas from inside the base than it would be to dig their way in from the outside.

Sakura had been a little worried about Naruto's proficiency with the transformation technique, but he had transformed into a perfect copy of Tayuya's partner with little fuss-apparently all that practice on that perverted technique of his had been good for something after all. Now they had real Oto headbands, real Oto paperwork, and were currently being examined by real Oto gate guards.

"So how was it out there?" One of the guards asked, making conversation.

"Almost as boring as your friend there." Sakura said, gesturing at the other guard while doing her best to mimic Tayuya's sneer. "The stupid peasants don't even try to fight back any more."

"You know, if you didn't get a chance to play your flute," the guard she had insulted replied, gesturing down at his crotch, "I got another instrument you could try out."

"Tsch." Sakura snorted derisively. "I play a flute, not a piccolo."

The guard started to stand, anger clearly visible on his face, but Sakura flared a little bit of killing intent and he sat right back down. She didn't want to start a fight at the gate, but she had gotten to know Tayuya pretty well over the last five days, and she knew that she would never back down to somebody low enough in the Oto hierarchy to pull guard duty. Turning to the other guard, she raised an eyebrow.

"Are we done here?" Sakura asked, allowing a little impatience to enter her voice.

"Yeah," the guard replied, triggering a seal that opened the door that led deeper into the base. "Welcome home."

She nodded and walked past the guard station, Naruto trailing behind her as they exited the entry room. They walked down the main hallway for a while, nodding greetings at a few off-duty Oto ninja, before making their way down to the second level of the base. There they holed up in an unused conference room before preparing for the next phase of the plan.

The Otogakure base was set up like a giant layer cake, turned upside down and buried underground. The topmost level was a sort of giant common area, with rooms set aside for training and recreation. The second level was where most of the living area was located, along with the briefing rooms. Both of the top two levels were accessible by all Oto shinobi.

The third level was where things started getting interesting. According to Tayuya, it was an enormous medical complex. Operated under Kabuto's supervision, it contained Orochimaru's less dangerous experiments. The place was spoken of in whispers by Oto shinobi, when it was spoken of at all.

The fourth level was Orochimaru's lair. It featured the enormous throne room from which he would address gatherings of the entire village, and also contained the private laboratories where he performed his more "interesting" experiments. There were rumors of a fifth level, used for various black projects, but Sakura had been unable to secure any reliable information regarding what was going on so far underground.

The conference room was soon filled with rank after rank of Naruto's clones. At a signal from Naruto the group transformed into non-descript-but non-identical-Oto shinobi. The clones then lined up to receive their explosive tags from the enormous sheaf Naruto pulled out from under his vest before heading out of the conference room to wander through the base.

After the last clone left, the room was eerily silent.

When the explosions started, Naruto turned to Sakura and gave her a cheerful thumbs-up.

ooOoo

Sasuke flicked an arrow out of his face with his katana before charging forward, the power of the curse seal allowing him to reach speeds he could never dream of on his own. An instant later he stopped just before running into the thin strand of webbing in front of him, before leaping back and glaring at his opponent.

Kidomaru was smirking at him, one pair of hands shaping a new projectile while another was making an obscene gesture in Sasuke's direction. A few quick hand seals later, a grand fireball wiped the smirk off of his face and burned up the webbing that had impeded Sasuke's progress.

Sasuke charged forward again, intent on striking while he had the initiative. As he reached the area where Kidomaru had been standing, he ran straight into another layer of webbing, one that had been hidden in the smoke created by his fireball. Sasuke tore himself free, but Kidomaru managed to land more webbing on him before he could move, and moments later Sasuke was trussed up in a coccoon that left only his head visible.

"You know," Kidomaru said, appearing in Sasuke's field of vision with a grin on his face, "I thought I would get tired of seeing you like that, but it just never gets old."

After another minute or so of gloating Kidomaru finally relented and released Sasuke from his coccoon. Sasuke sheathed his katana before moving into a series of cool-down stretches, releasing the power of the cursed seal as he did so.

"Now, what did we learn?" Kidomaru's sing-song voice was slightly mocking, prompting a glare from Sasuke. He bit back an angry retort and reviewed the fight in his head before replying.

"I was too eager to get in close, where I have the advantage." Sasuke said. "That's why I kept running into your traps."

"Right." Kidomaru replied, nodding. "You're not going to be able to fight a guy like me in a long range battle, you have to learn to be patient and pick your spots."

Sasuke growled. He was tired of people telling him to be patient. Everybody in Konoha thought he needed to wait before taking vengeance on his brother. They didn't understand that every day that man drew breath was a mockery of all of Sasuke's skills and accomplishments. And now he was in the heart of Orochimaru's power, receiving training in the secret level of his hidden base, and he was once again being told to be patient.

Sasuke didn't get a chance to express his thoughts on the subject of patience before the base shook with a series of explosions. Kidomaru was all business as he ran to the door to the training room, Sasuke close behind.

"The village is under attack!" Kidomaru announced, biting his thumb and running it along the seal to open the door. "Stick with me, we need to get our team together-"

He was silenced as Sasuke drew his katana and struck of his head in a single motion. Kidomaru was a formidable fighter, but he couldn't match Sasuke's speed. Struck from behind, taken by surprise, he had no chance.

"Right." Sasuke said, staring down at the disembodied head lying on the floor. "Time to find my team."

ooOoo

As Sakura and Naruto made their way through Otogakure, looking for the stairway to the third level, they were confronted by a scene of impressive destruction. Naruto had instructed his clones to activate their exploding tags before engaging any of the enemy in combat. Catching an explosive tag to the face in the middle of a taijutsu fight was more than most ninja could handle, and even if an enemy did get in a lucky hit and dispel the clone, the tag would be left behind to explode soon after. Sakura was impressed by the effectiveness of the tactic-if there was a technique that would let Naruto reproduce this without blowing through a month of earnings in exploding tag, he would really be a force to be reckoned with.

When they found the passageway down to the third level, they also found the remains of the Oto ninja who had been standing guard. Naruto's face turned a little green when he saw the body parts strewn across the hall, and Sakura put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Remember, they would have done the same to you," she said, "these are the same guys who invaded our home and helped kill the Third Hokage-"

"I know!" Naruto snapped at her, then stopped and took a deep breath before continuing in a calmer tone of voice. "I know this is what we have to do, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it."

Sakura respected Naruto's apparent desire for silence as the two of them made their way down the stairs. When they reached the bottom they emerged into a room that looked like nothing so much as the waiting room for Konoha's General Hospital. There was what looked like a reception desk along the back wall, with rows of seating scattered throughout the room. Sakura half expected to see one of Konoha's hospital receptionists welcoming them in, but the room was empty.

Sakura and Naruto started to move across the room, but they hadn't taken more than a couple steps across the tiled floor when the door at the back of the room opened, and a familiar grey-haired figure stepped out.

"Sakura, I'm so glad you've decided to join us after all." Kabuto said, pushing his glasses up with his index finger. "Although your entrance was rather unnecessarily dramatic."

"I'm not here to join you, you bastard!" Sakura shouted, feeling the pain of betrayal all over again as she confronted the man who used to be one of her best friends. "We're here to rescue Sasuke."

"I don't think the boss wants to be rescued." A new voice spoke up as two figures entered the room and moved to flank Kabuto. Sakura recognized them from their bingo book entries; they had been cross-referenced from Tayuya's. The slender man moving with deadly grace to stand opposite Naruto was Sakon, while the massive brute moving to face her could only be Jirobu.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked. She did her best to let her irritation cover up any nervousness she was feeling. She frankly wasn't sure that she and Naruto together would be able to overcome Kabuto. Adding reinforcements to his side of the battlefield wouldn't make their task any easier.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kabuto asked, smirking at her. "Sasuke is adjusting to life here in Otogakure so well, Lord Orochimaru made him the leader of the Sound Four."

"I guess it's the Sound Five, now that we have Sasuke." sakon said, as Sakura was still coming to grips with the situation.

"I still think it should be the Sound Six," Jirobu commented, his deep voice matching his large frame, "leaving out Ukon seems unfair, and-"

"Enough," Kabuto snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose as if warding off a headache. "The point is, Sakura, if anybody is trying to kidnap Sasuke around here, it's you."

"No way!" Naruto shouted. "Sasuke's a bastard, but he's no traitor! I don't believe he would ever join up with you guys... would he?"

Naruto directed his last question at Sakura, and she felt her heart skip a beat at the pleading expression in his eyes. Sakura still remembered with painful clarity the confrontation a year ago, when Sasuke was bent on leaving the village and pursuing the strength he could gain from Orochimaru. But at the same time, she remembered a year of performing missions together, of quiet conversations around the fire and careful teamwork in combat.

"No, no he wouldn't." Sakura said, smiling at Naruto before turning to glare at the Oto contingent. "I know Sasuke, and I trust him. He's not working for you."

"Trust?" Kabuto said, snorting. "You are more naive than I realized. A true shinobi trusts no one but himself."

Sakura stared at Kabuto in surprise. No human being could go through life without trusting anybody. Konoha ninja didn't trust easily, of course, but the bonds that they did form were strong and almost impossible to break. Most genin teams became life-long friends, providing each other with emotional support, sympathetic ears, and, when needed, a quick kick in the butt.

For somebody to grow up refusing to trust anybody at all... they'd turn into an emotional wreck, ready to turn on the village at the drop of a hat. Sakura realized that she was looking at Kabuto with pity, and forced herself to return her focus to the present situation.

"You spent years spying on Konoha, but you still don't understand the Will of Fire at all. I know Sasuke-besides, if he is so firmly on your side, why isn't he here to tell us himself?" Sakura said, shaking her head. "No, he was brought here by force, and we're going to bring him back by force if we have to."

"So be it." Kabuto replied.

He said the words with such finality Sakura immediately readied herself for a fight. She relaxed a little when he took a step back, only to straighten up again when the other two started moving forward.

The tension of waiting was apparently too much for Naruto, who yelled out a war cry and charged, four clones appearing to surround him as he rushed forward. Sakon stepped forward to meet him, and the two were soon engaged in an all out brawl that had them moving away from Sakura and Jirobu.

Jirobu kept his eyes on Sakura. He didn't move except to dispatch one of Naruto's clones that had wandered too close with a bone-jarring punch to the gut. Sakura winced a little at the impact, but forced herself to stand ready. A big guy like Jirobu wouldn't think twice about closing in to swat aside a little girl like Sakura, but once he was in range for a hand to hand fight she should be able to take him apart with medical chakra.

To her surprise, rather than charge forward Jirobu formed some quick handseals and slammed his hands into the ground. Before Sakura could react earth leapt up from the ground to form a dome, trapping her in an above-ground tomb.

ooOoo

Sasuke was too well-disciplined to grumble to himself as he tried to navigate his way through the maze that was Otogakure. Mostly.

Since he had woken up in Orochimaru's secret base, Sasuke hadn't exactly been given the grand tour. In fact, he hadn't traveled anywhere other than the path between his living quarters and the training area. Fortunately, everybody seemed to be distracted by the ongoing attack-Sasuke was pretty sure it was by Konoha troops, he couldn't think of anybody else with both the means and the motive to take on Orochimaru-so nobody managed to intercept Sasuke before he found the stairway leading up to the next level.

The stairway opened up into a giant room, clearly designed to impress as well as intimidate. The high, arching ceilings were covered in murals depicting Orochimaru's great battles, as well as other paintings showing some of his more disturbing experiments. The walls were covered in a repeating pattern that somehow managed to evoke the sense of a giant mass of snakes, writhing together as Sasuke's eyes traced them from one end of the room to the next.

There were doorways set into the wall that appeared to lead into various private chambers, and at the far end of the room-a distance that must have covered the length of the base-a stairway led up to the next level. In the center of the room was a raised platform topped off by an ornate chair, no doubt the throne Orochimaru rested in while he looked over his loyal subjects.

Sasuke let out a small sigh of relief when he finished giving the room a once-over, and spotted no signs of life. Orochimaru's sense of interior design was creepy, but it would be farse worse for him to encounter the man himself. Sasuke hurried across the room, intent on reaching the stairway and joining up with the invading forces, when the sound of a demented chuckle froze him in his tracks.

"Leaving so soon?" A familiar voice asked.

Sasuke turned to see Orochimaru, lounging on his throne as if he had been there all along. He fell into a combat stance and activated his Sharingan. Not that his family's bloodline limit would give him a real chance at defeating an opponent like Orochimaru, but he needed every advantage he could get in case the man launched some kind of surprise attack.

"Yes." Sasuke responded. He never understood Naruto's need to get into extended arguments with his enemies. Sasuke wanted to leave, Orochimaru didn't want him to leave, one of them was going to be disappointed. That's all there was to it.

"After everything I've done for you?" orochimaru asked, clasping his hands dramatically over his heart. "I'm hurt."

Once, Sasuke had sought out Orochimaru, eager for the power that one of the Legendary Three could provide him. When he woke up a month ago, he had been surprised but also a little curious about what Orochimaru had in store. After a month in Otogakure, however, his mind had changed. As his irritation with his situation boiled over, Sasuke felt compelled to break his usual stoicism.

"All you've done is arrange spars with weak opponents. No life or death battles, nothing to test my capacity." Sasuke replied, scowling. "You just want to keep me in a hole and waste my time until your body transfer technique is ready to use."

"You want a more interesting opponent? I suppose if you want to leave, it's only fair that I give you a chance to take my graduation exam." Orochimaru smiled, and Sasuke had to suppress a flinch. "Your objective is to survive."

Orochimaru's smile stretched out, and he reached into his mouth to withdraw a katana. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at seeing Kusanagi. The legendary blade was said to be able to cut through any substance, and carried a unique poison that was invariably deadly. Orochimaru was already dangerous enough with an ordinary sword, using Kusanagi seemed like overkill.

"The test," Orochimaru announced, giving the sword a practice swing before returning to a ready position, "begins now."

ooOoo

Sakura was surprised. She was surprised that a guy who looked like Jirobu opened up with a long range attack; she was surprised that there was so much material in the floor between the third and fourth levels of the base; and she was surprised that the earthen dome had not immediately transitioned into some kind of crushing attack.

She sent a pulse of chakra at the walls of the dome, trying to wrest control of that section of earth. She frowned when the chakra was sucked away, and checked her own internal chakra levels. They were still ok, but they seemed lower than they should have been given her exertion so far. What was worse was that they seemed to be slowly but steadily draining away.

Sakura reached out with her hand this time and touched the wall, careful not to send any chakra outside of her body. Concentrating, she could feel the twisting sensation of a chakra drain technique. She had run across a few techniques of this type when dealing with Iwa missing-nin (and, on one memorable occasion, Iwa hunter-nin). It operated by setting up a vortex in the earth chakra that interacted with the victim's chakra to draw it away. The user of the technique gained only a fraction of the chakra that was leeched off of the victim, but the main point of the technique was to incapacitate the target without killing them.

Sakura turned her concentration inward once more, focusing on the area near her navel where her physical and mental energies came together to form chakra. Each person's chakra had either a clockwise or counterclockwise spin, based on how the two different energy types mixed. Learning how to change the direction of the spin was a fairly advanced chakra control technique that was largely seen as more trouble than it was worth. Other than some obscure wind techniques, chakra spin was usually irrelevant to ninjutsu. One slightly less obscure application of spin control was in confusing chakra drain techniques.

Sakura smiled as she shifted her chakra spin from clockwise to counterclockwise and felt the energy drain stop. It wouldn't take long for Jirobu to figure out what was wrong and compensate for it, but neutralizing his technique was an important first step to victory-she didn't exactly have a lot of chakra to spare.

She brought her hand down against the tile floor and sent a sharp spike of chakra down into the ground. Unlike the diffuse pulse she had used earlier, the spike was able to reach through the layer of earth controlled by Jirobu to the untouched material beneath. Sakura infused that earth with her chakra and focused on maintaining her connection to it while she performed the hand seals for an earth clone.

She felt the larger than average drain required by remote formation of an earth clone and frowned. She was already below half of her resting chakra capacity. Of course, any chakra conserved in the course of losing a fight and getting killed was pretty irrelevant.

Sakura kept her focus on the clone as it burrowed through the earth until it was behind where Jirobu had been standing when he performed his technique. She had the clone move as silently as possible to have its head pop up and take a look around. She was rewarded with a clear view of Jirobu's backside, as her opponent was crouched where she had last seen him, apparently intent on maintaining his imprisonment technique.

Sakura wasted no time, directing her clone to stand up and deliver an open handed slap to the back of Jirobu's head. At the moment of impact she sent a spike of medical chakra forward, instantly pulping about half of his brain. After Jirobu fell silently to the floor, she had the clone plant a kunai in his spinal cord-she didn't want to get burned again by an opponent with some freaky regeneration technique.

Returning her focus to her own body, Sakura found herself buried under a pile of dirt. With no opposing will to impede her, it was simple enough to burrow her way out and take a look around the battlefield with her own eyes.

Her clone stood about halfway between herself and Kabuto. The medic was silently observing the battle and made no move to intervene. Roughly twenty feet to the right, Naruto was involved with some kind of stand-off with Sakon. Naruto's body was glowing red as he drew on the power of the Kyuubi's chakra, and there seemed to be a head much like Sakon's growing out of Naruto's body. The head was screaming in pain as it was corroded away by the Kyuubi's chakra, and Sakon was screaming along with it, either in rage or sympathetic pain.

Sakura didn't wonder too much about his motivations as she walked up behind him and cut off his yelling with another spike of medical chakra to the head. Naruto gave her a look that she had a hard time interpreting, and as Sakon fell to the ground-and the weird head attached to Naruto evaporated into dust-they both turned to face Kabuto.

Far from looking concerned by this development, the man actually had the audacity to offer them some polite applause.

ooOoo

The Sharingan empowered its bearer with an unparalleled level of insight into his opponent's actions. Unfortunately, it didn't help you move any faster. Sasuke found himself just barely able to fend off Orochimaru's initial attacks, bringing his own katana around in a series of successful parries before being tagged by a straight kick to the ribs that sent him stumbling backwards.

Sasuke took a second to regain his footing and looked up to see Orochimaru regarding him with a twisted smile. The bastard was actually giving him time to set himself. Sasuke tried to figure out some alternative strategy-pulling on the cursed seal would grant him an increase in speed, but it didn't seem like a good idea while fighting the man who had invented the seal-before ultimately settling back into a defensive stance. He simply wasn't fast enough to attack Orochimaru and survive, his only hope was to stay on the defensive and hope for a mistake.

The mistake didn't come on the next pass, as Sasuke was barely able fend off a series of blindingly fast strikes before receiving a punch to the nose for his trouble. He staggered backwards again, and again when his vision returned to him he found himself staring at Orochimaru's smiling face.

Before Orochimaru could move in for a third attack he was forced to jump back as a brace of kunai flashed into view, kicking up dust when they embedded themselves in the ground where he had been standing. Sasuke looked for the origin of the kunai and was absurdly relieved to see the masked face of his old sensei. He felt a little resentful at the thought of needing to be bailed out of a fight, but fought it down; it was only reasonable to hope for backup when facing a ninja of Orochimaru's caliber.

"I could have used your help a few minutes ago." Sasuke said, because overt expressions of gratitude just weren't how he and Kakashi interacted.

"Well, I would have been here sooner," Kakashi said, holding his hands out sheepishly, "but then a black cat walked in front of me and I had to figure out a whole new way around the base."

"So, the last of the Hatake and the last of the Uchiha." Orochimaru said. He didn't sound amused but he also didn't sound worried, which worried Sasuke a little. "Such a shame that it's also the least of the Hatake and the least of the Uchiha. At least if your father were here, I could expect a decent fight."

Orochimaru sneered at Kakashi as he finished speaking, but the copy-nin didn't rise to the bait. He appeared completely unruffled as he gathered his thoughts before speaking-although it was always a little hard to tell what he was thinking, of course, thanks to the mask.

"As I recall, the last time you tried taking dad on, he won pretty convincingly." Kakashi replied. "And rumor has it your last run-in with Itachi didn't go so well either. Maybe you should be glad you're just facing us younger folk today."

"It's sad really," Orochimaru said, "How it only took three generations for Konoha to go from Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju to... you."

Despite his words, Orochimaru did seem to be getting a little irritated. Sasuke drew on his experience from years of interaction with Kakashi, hoping that even a legendary ninja might make a mistake due to anger.

"Hey, sensei," Sasuke asked, "what do you do when some boring old guy just wants to talk about the good old days all the time?"

"That's why I always carry some good reading material with me." Kakashi replied.

Sasuke looked over to see that his sensei had actually pulled out one of his little orange books and seemed to have switched his attention from his opponent to his pornography. This was apparently the last straw for Orochimaru, who charged in to attack with the Kusanagi. Kakashi deflected the attack with a kunai, and the battle was back on.

It was clear after the first exchange just how much Orochimaru had been holding back earlier. Sasuke could follow the action, but he would have been dead in seconds if Orochimaru had attacked him with the speed he and Kakashi were now displaying. Sasuke felt frustrated at his inability to really contribute to the fight, even after working on his speed for so long.

The really frustrating thing was that he was almost at a point where he could fight on this level. Back before the chuunin exam, the first attack made at such speed would have run him through before he could react. Now, after nearly two more years of training, he would be able to deflect the first such attack, but would be utterly unable to deal with the follow-up strike. It was frustrating to feel totally outclassed, but it was even more aggravating to be so close to matching an opponent while ultimately having no chance at victory.

Before Sasuke could wallow in too much angst, he was drawn out of his internal contemplation by the hand sign Kakashi had flashed while Orochimaru's vision was obscured. Taking it as his cue, Sasuke flashed through the appropriate hand seals and spat out the largest grand fireball he could, aimed directly at Kakashi's location. Just as he finished the technique, Kakashi moved and drew Orochimaru into the path of the blast.

Orochimaru was focused on Kakashi's actions, and the fireball seemed to catch him completely unawares. Sasuke felt a moment of triumph as his enemy's form was enveloped in a raging inferno, but his stomach sank when the smoke cleared to reveal Orochimaru, completely unharmed, smiling at the two of them.

After allowing a moment for the disappointment to set in, he moved, lunging at Kakashi with an attack that turned out to be a feint. As Kakashi stumbled backwards, Orochimaru dashed towards Sasuke. Sasuke felt his stomach sink as his Sharingan told him exactly what was going to happen: he would deflect Orochimaru's initial attack, which would leave him wide open to the follow up that would cut him open from hip to chin.

Just as Sasuke was coming to terms with his impending death, he saw another blur of motion. His Sharingan eye could only convey a jumble of images. He saw Kakashi charging forward, his headband pushed up to reveal his Sharingan displaying some bizarre pattern Sasuke had never seen before. He saw an indistinct flash of weaponry as Kakashi and Orochimaru clashed. Then the present caught up with his predictive powers and he saw Kakashi standing in front of him, face-to-face with Orochimaru, impaled by the blade of Kusanagi. The sword had plunged through his stomach, and the tip was inches from penetrating Sasuke's skin.

ooOoo

Naruto was apparently done with conversation, charging forward before Kabuto had a chance to say anything. He was moving faster than Sakura had ever seen him move before, and she was shocked when Kabuto smoothly stepped out of the way and then sent Naruto flying with a bone-jarring punch. Naruto crashed into the wall hard, leaving an impact crater behind as he fell to the ground and did not move.

Sakura swallowed her nerves and reached down for the churned up earth left behind by Jirobu's technique. When she stood, she held a staff in her hands. With a thought, she and her earth clone were surrounded by illusionary clones, and the group of Sakuras cautiously advanced on Kabuto.

Sakura focused on the staff in her hands. She had discovered-or rather, copied the discovery of a missing-nin-that elemental chakra would behave differently based on its spin. Usually earth and fire chakra would refuse to combine for anybody who didn't possess the appropriate bloodline, but if the earth chakra had a spin opposite that of the fire chakra, they would tend to meld together. It wasn't nearly as strong as a proper lava release, but it was a nasty little surprise to drop on somebody in the middle of a battle.

Of course, simultaneously generating chakra threads with opposing spins was impossible. Sakura had the best chakra control of anybody she knew, and she wasn't close to being able to accomplish such a thing. However, if you took a chakra thread and flipped it upside down, it had the same practical effect. Even a shortcut like that required very good chakra control, but it was something Sakura could do.

She applied that knowledge now to the earthen staff in her hands. While the outside of the staff was solid stone, the interior was soon composed of superheated mud.

Sakura led off with a feint from herself, followed by a simultaneous attack from her earth clone and an illusionary clone. Kabuto ignored the feint, and caught the earth clone with a punch that left it little more than a muddy smear on the wall. After the opening exchange he turned to look directly at Sakura.

"Why do you continue to fight me?" Kabuto asked. "You know you can't win."

"I have to fight now," Sakura replied, "I've killed your subordinates."

"Is that what you think?" Kabuto asked, obviously surprised. "All that you've done is open up a space in the organization for yourself. And Naruto too, of course."

Sakura recoiled as Kabuto spoke. She made sure to have her clones recoil as well, although she had a feeling she wasn't fooling Kabuto. She had also made sure that her voice came from all of the clones equally, but Kabuto's gaze had never wavered from her face.

"What! That's how you reward loyalty?" Sakura asked, outraged.

"Ninja receive loyalty and support as long as they remain useful. Sakon and Jirobu failed in their mission, so they were no longer useful." Kabuto replied, then shrugged. "That is the shape of loyalty in the ninja world. At least Lord Orochimaru is honest about it."

"That's not true. sasuke is my friend, and I'll fight for him." Sakura replied. "Whatever it takes, whatever the risk, I'll do it. That's loyalty!"

With that, Sakura went on the attack, bringing her staff around in a horizontal swipe. She was hoping that he would go for a block of the weapon itself, but Kabuto stepped inside of her guard and blocked her arms directly. There was a quick exchange of blows and Sakura found herself stepping back, her left arm hanging uselessly at her side.

Sakura reformed the staff into a tonfa so that she could wield it with one hand, then moved in to attack again. This time Kabuto simply caught the weapon in a cross block, and Sakura immediately let it dissolve and spray heated mud all over his arms. She moved in to follow up while he was still cursing in pain, but Kabuto reacted with a kick that was too quick for her to block, and she saw the familiar shine of medical chakra coming from his toes before she fell to the ground, her right leg having collapsed out from under her.

Sakura looked up to see Kabuto staring down at her as he healed the burns on his arms, leaving unblemished skin visible through holes in his sleeves.

"Medical chakra... with your feet." Sakura muttered, mostly to herself.

"I told you that you were outmatched." Kabuto said, pushing his glasses up on his face before crouching down to speak to her. "Sakura... please, join me. We make a good team. Together, working here, the advances we could make in medical technology would be amazing. Think about it."

Sakura looked at the face of the man in front of her. He seemed honestly concerned for her future. But then, he always had. She remembered how he had helped her prepare for the chunin exams, how he had reassured her after she chose to stay on Kakashi's team instead of staying in Konoha to train.

His infiltration of Konoha may have happened on Orochimaru's orders, but it was unlikely Orochimaru had had anything to do with his decision to take her under his wing. After all, Orochimaru would hardly have cared about a genin with no clan and no bloodline limit. It was possible that Kabuto had been trying to do right by her, in his own twisted way.

But even as her heart was softening a little bit towards Kabuto, another face intruded on her vision. Sasuke Uchiha was difficult to get along with. He was short with her, with Naruto, with everybody, really. He never really opened up with anybody. But he was a good teammate-he always pulled his weight, and he always had her back. She knew a lot of his obsessive training regimen was dedicated towards catching up with his brother, but she believed that a lot of the reason Sasuke was so hard on himself was his desire not to let down his team.

Even is Sasuke wasn't her destined love-she went back and forth on the issue on a weekly basis-he was exactly the kind of hard-working, dependable teammate that she needed. She thought of all of the time they spent training together and performing missions together. She couldn't reward all of that with betrayal.

"I'm sorry." Sakura finally whispered. "I can never join Orochimaru."

"Very well." Kabuto's face was devoid of expression as he drew back his hand, a flicker of medical chakra forming into a scalpel. "I'll make this quick and painless."

Before Kabuto could deliver the final blow he was interrupted by a feral roar, and Naruto came charging towards him in a red haze of chakra. Kabuto stood and turned to face him, and Sakura suddenly felt like she was seeing the world through Sharingan eyes.

She could see exactly what was going to happen. Kabuto was going to step out of the way. Naruto would keep charging forward in a berserk rage. And Kabuto would strike again with the freakish strength he had learned from Tsunade. No matter how much power Naruto was drawing from the Kyuubi, he would be left embedded in the walls once more.

Sakura desperately fought to bring her right hand around and into contact with the ground. Just before Kabuto was set to sidestep, she slapped her palm to the ground and sent chakra through the earth as quickly as she good, bringing a pair of shackles up from the ground to trap Kabuto's feet.

Kabuto started at the surprising restriction. He would have been able to break free easily enough given a second to do so, but Naruto wasn't going to give him that time. Kabuto still managed to intercept Naruto's charge, deflecting Naruto's first two attacks before winding up for a haymaker that would put the blonde down for good.

Before Kabuto's fist could strike home, the chakra haze around Naruto solidified into a tail of red chakra. The tail sliced forward, passing through the hand Kabuto had thrown up to block and spearing him through the right shoulder. The tail then yanked him forward into a grapple with Naruto, and the pair was carried by Naruto's momentum into a rolling tumble that ended when they fetched up against the far wall.

Naruto stood up and stepped back, then took one look at Kabuto and leaned over to the side, vomiting as the red chakra around him disappeared. Sakura awkwardly summoned a crutch made of earth from the ground and used it to limp over to Kabuto's body. His arms were twisted at an unnatural angle, but the real damage was done by the red chakra. Angry burns up and down his body made it look like Kabuto had been pulled from a burning building-after it had been burning for a while.

As Sakura watched, the burns seemed to be receding. Her eyes widened as she realized Kabuto must have learned some kind of self-healing technique from Tsunade that allowed him to cling to life, and even recover from horrific injuries. A moment later she frowned as she realized what she had to do.

Sakura molded the bottom half of the crutch so that it would prop her up without the use of her good hand, then broke off the top half. She thinned and broadened the tip of it until it looked more like a shovel than a walking stick, then closed her eyes. She thought of the people who were counting on her right now. She thought of the people who would be saved if a powerful missing nin were no longer wandering the Elemental Countries. Finally, she added a final name to her own personal memorial.

Sakura opened her eyes, and stabbed forward with her improvised weapon. Naruto was silent, and in the stillness of the room the sound of Kabuto's head hitting the floor was startlingly loud.

ooOoo

Orochimaru opened his eyes and was immediately confronted with several oddities. Instead of having a view of his base, he was looking across a completely featureless white plain. His hands and feet were secured to a cross despite the lack of any visible means of restraint. Strangest of all, he seemed to be inhabiting a completely unmodified human body.

Orochimaru knew thirty-five ways of disrupting a genjutsu without using his hands. He had gone through seventeen of them when his concentration was disrupted by the voice of the Hatake brat.

"That's not going to work." Kakashi said, his voice as carefree as ever. "For the next seventy-two hours, I am in complete control of this realm."

Orochimaru ran through the remaining eighteen techniques, to no visible effect. He glared down at Kakashi.

"This is impossible." Orochimaru said. "Even the idea that someone like you could develop a genjutsu that would restrain someone like me is laughable."

"And yet here we are." Kakashi commented, before looking up to meet Orochimaru's eyes. His Sharingan eye was visible, and now that he had a chance to examine it Orochimaru could see that it had developed into a pattern that he had never seen before. Kakashi smiled when he saw Orochimaru's focus shift to the Sharingan.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan allows access to techniques such as the Tsukiyomi, an illusion that lasts for days of subjective time despite taking only seconds in the real world." Kakashi said in a lecturing tone, gesturing at the world around them. "The illusion is unbreakable. Unfortunately, the legends say that to access the Mangekyo the holder of the Sharingan must murder their best friend."

"So, you actually have exerted yourself to gain power." Orochimaru said. As much as he could be said to respect anything, Orochimaru respected the pursuit of power.

"Not exactly," Kakashi replied, scratching the back of his head. "It turns out that feeling responsible for your students' death, when they're lured into the camp of a psychotic missing nin, that is also enough to evolve the Sharingan into the Mangekyo."

"You know, telling me these things doesn't make me want to slack off in my pursuit of the Sharingan." Orochimaru said.

"Well, that's kind of a moot point, since you're going to die soon." Kakashi said, straightening up as his voice lost all traces of playfulness. "I just wanted you to know that you were the one to hand me the weapon used to kill you."

"That's ridiculous." Orochimaru scoffed. "You've been impaled by the Kusanagi, you're as good as dead. When this illusion ends, I'll be able to subdue your student easily enough. All that you've done is provide me with a new path of power to explore in the future."

"I guess I didn't mention," Kakashi said, as a katana appeared in his hand, "that most of the people subjected to this technique fall into a coma afterwards. Even somebody like you, I expect will be unable to use your body for a while, which will give Sasuke an opening. I've found Sasuke is very good at taking advantage of openings."

Kakashi stood and casually impaled Orochimaru through the stomach, roughly where he had stabbed Kakashi earlier. Orochimaru hissed in pain and focused back on Kakashi, who was holding a brand new katana that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Now," Kakashi said, "it's time for me to avenge my death in advance, I suppose."

It had been a long time since Orochimaru had inhabited a body capable of feeling pain. Even before that, it had been a long time since he faced an opponent capable of leaving him feeling helpless. This was going to be a long three days.

ooOoo

Naruto and Sakura hurried through Otogakure. Well, Naruto hurried, and the clone that was currently carrying Sakura bridal-style was hurrying as well. The damage that Kabuto had done was beyond Sakura's ability to heal quickly, and she had insisteded that it was more important that they try to find Sasuke as soon as possible than it was to wait around while she tried to stitch her tendons back together.

Sakura was a little irritated at Naruto's resistance to injury. While it was nice to have a teammate who could cart her around without impeding his own combat ability, it was a little frustrating that he could walk face first into a blow that would have killed her and come out of the whole situation unscathed, while two precisely delivered strikes had been enough to nearly cripple her. If they got into another fight, she was going to immediately dive underground and hope that the base design left enough space between floors for her to hide in.

The two of them descended to the fourth floor in time to see three combatants frozen in a strange tableau. Orochimaru had thrust his sword through Kakashi's stomach, nearly to the point of hitting Sasuke, who was crouched behind his teacher. The three of them were frozen for a second, before Kakashi slid backwards off of the sword, hitting the ground in a boneless heap.

Oddly, Orochimaru didn't seem to react, instead slumping down slightly where he stood. Sasuke didn't hesitate to bring his katana around in a vicious attack, and Orochimaru made no move to defend as his head was struck from his shoulders.

As the head struck the ground, his body bulged obscenely before another head emerged from his shoulders, trailed by the form of a massive snake. However intimidating the monster appeared, it was also moving aimlessly, and it made no move to dodge as Sasuke thrust his katana forward, lightning crackling along the blade.

The massive snake exploded into countless tiny snakes, which made their way for the nearest exit in a tidal wave of writhing bodies. It only took a second before Sakura realized she and Naruto were standing between the snakes and the exit.

"Naruto!" She shouted. "Toads!"

"I'm on it!" Naruto called out, before biting his thumb and then bringing his hands together to call up a line of clones. Each of the clones made the hand seals for the summoning technique, and all along the line massive ninja toads appeared in a puff of smoke. They looked around, confused, until Naruto called out instructions.

"Dinner time!"

The average toad can strike out with its tongue quickly enough to capture a bug in flight. A ninja toad is to an average toad what a shinobi is to a civilian human. As the wave of snakes approached the toads, they lashed out with a vengeance. The giant mass of white melted away like a snow bank hit with a high powered suiton technique. Within moments the snakes were gone, and the toads were hopping around the room looking for stragglers.

Sakura looked up to see Sasuke regarding them with a bemused expression on his face. She was going to say something when her attention was drawn to where Kakashi lay on the ground. She hadn't been too worried earlier-Kakashi was frankly tough enough that a sword through his guts would take a while to kill him-but he didn't look too good. She twisted the ear of the clone carrying her until it had taken her to Kakashi's side.

"Sakura." Kakashi said as she drew near, his voice for once completely sincere. "I've been meaning to tell you-"

He was cut off as Sakura brought a glowing hand to his face and put him into a healing trance. While in the trance his circulatory system would be slowed to the minimum amount necessary to sustain life, greatly impeding the spread of poison or disease.

"Tell me once I've healed you up." Sakura said to his unconscious form as she checked out his wound. As she suspected, the edges reflected the presence of some kind of poison.

"The Kusanagi carries a poison as unique as the blade." Sasuke said, his voice heavy. "There is no antidote."

"I don't need an antidote." Sakura said as she awkwardly maneuvered to pull out her med-kit and unseal her water skin. "I just need to get the poison out."

Sakura's chakra control was better than her muscle control at the moment, as she was easily able to summon forth a ball of water and force it into Kakashi's body, seeking out the poison. She found that the poison had spread far more quickly than should be possible, and was harder to grasp with her chakra than most poisons were. After an indeterminate amount of time, she withdrew the water, now contaminated with poison, and stared down at her sensei in consternation.

"That cost me half of my remaining chakra, and I barely made a dent in the poison." Sakura said, hoping that speaking aloud would lead her to a solution. "I know I can do this, I just don't have enough chakra."

"Can you use mine?" Naruto asked, popping up besid her. "I've still got plenty."

"No," Sakura said, still a little surprised by Naruto's inexhaustible reserves, "Unless-we need a toad-a-port, now!"

Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something about the name of the technique, but he didn't have a chance before Naruto finished the summoning technique and a toad the size of a small house appeared in front of them. Naruto immediately launched into an explanation of their need for a lift, only to be interrupted by the irritated toad.

"What are you doing, brat?" The toad asked. "You're in big trouble, and you're crazy if you think I'm taking you anywhere."

"Hey, lighten up, Gamachouyaku!" Gamakichi took a break from searching for snakes to plead their case. "These guys just killed Orochimaru, and now they need medical help."

"Orochimaru is dead?" Gamachouyaku asked, receiving an answer as they all nodded and Gamakichi patted his stomach. "I suppose that merits one ride. Where do you need to go?"

"We need to get to Konoha hospital." Sakura said. "Ideally on the roof."

"That's no problem. Jiraiya used to do his research on the slug girl from up there. Good times," Gamachouyaku replied, then shook his head. "But that's not important right now. Just hop in."

With that, the toad's mouth opened wide, wider than seemed strictly possible, presenting a ramp up into its belly. Naruto had a clone gather up Sakura and Kakashi as gently as possible, and Team Seven confidently strode onto the saliva covered path of destiny.

ooOoo

The tranquility of a beautiful summer day in Konoha was disrupted when a massive cloud of smoke briefly obscured the roof of the hospital where, with a casual disregard for what a world without ninja would call the "laws of physics," a toad appeared from empty space. The toad opened its mouth and the members of Team Seven staggered out-Naruto and Sasuke under their own power, and Sakura and Kakashi in the hands of Naruto's clones.

"I am never doing that again." Sakura groaned, massaging her temples with her good hand. The trip to and from summon space involved movement in unnatural directions, twisting and turning in ways that were extremely disconcerting. And that was not even getting into the issue of the instants in between, where Sakura was pretty sure she had caught a glimpse of things man was not meant to see.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted in agreement. Sakura took a moment away from feeling sorry for herself to hope that Sasuke had deactivated his Sharingan before their toad-a-port, then focused on the task at hand.

There was a stairway leading to the hospital roof via a door that was usually left unlocked. She and Kabuto had occasionally enjoyed lunch up here-the view was spectacular-whenever he could get time away from his duties. Sakura forced herself not to dwell on those memories, instead instructing Naruto on how to get in to the hospital and leading their party to an operating room.

Naruto's clone carefully lay Kakashi down on the table, while the original Naruto looked to Sakura for instruction. She showed him where to smear blood on the table to indicate that he was the chakra donor, and marked the table with her own blood to indicate that she would be the recipient. The table itself would handle the filtering needed to make the chakra of one person usable by another. Usually such a thing would be handled by a team of medics, but Naruto had more chakra than any five medic-nin Sakura could think of.

Sasuke took a position by the door, and Sakura nodded at Naruto to begin.

The initial rush of chakra was intense. Sakura immediately found herself directing more chakra than she could produce when she was fresh, and the flow just kept increasing. Looking down at the table, she could see the seals glowing from the transfer, and a few warning lights blinking from the strain.

"Naruto, settle down." Sakura said. "That's enough chakra, and this operation could take while. You need to pace yourself."

Naruto looked like he was going to say something, but instead he simply nodded and settled in to continue producing a steady stream of chakra.

Sakura focused on the water in the basin next to the table, and found that it leapt to do her bidding. Spreading it through Kakashi's system, she discovered that the poison was quite widespread, despite the healing trance. On her first pass she was only able to gather in enough of the poison to return him roughly to the state he had been in before their toad-a-port.

After dumping the initial load of poison, Sakura stopped to examine her energy supply, and found that all of her actions so far had left her with more chakra than she had started with. It was a remarkable amount of power, really, and glancing at Naruto she saw that he was not drawing on the power of the Kyuubi at all. It was all him. She had to wonder if his body had developed some kind of direct ramen-to-chakra conversion mechanism or something.

Turning back to the task at hand, Sakura made another pass through to gather the poison. Now that she wasn't worried about running out of chakra, it was just a matter of gathering up the poison before it had to spread, and making sure to maintain her mental focus so that she didn't miss any of it.

Sakura lost track of the time, but after her sixth pass through, the diagnostic technique showed no trace of poison in Kakashi's system. She performed the technique again to be sure, then gave a quiet fist-pump in celebration. Kakashi still had some internal injury caused by the poison, not to mention the sword strike, but it was the kind of thing that would heal on its own with rest, and Sakura didn't want to risk screwing anything up by trying to heal it herself. Instead she simply removed the block keeping Kakashi under the healing trance, bandaged up his torso, and turned to face her team.

It was then that she came face to face with the Hokage. Sakura glanced behind her to see Sasuke giving her a slightly apolegetic shrug, then returned her focus to Tsunade.

"I knew I should have insisted you finish your medical training." Tsunade said. Sakura was relieved that she didn't seem angry, especially considering all of the allegations that had dogged Sakura when she left the village.

"Lady Hokage! I-" Sakura said, then paused as she realized she didn't know what to say.

"Team Seven, reporting for duty!" Kakashi interrupted. Sakura turned around to see Kakashi give a crisp military salute, only to relax and begin scratching the back of his head in embarassment. "We would have checked in at the Hokage Tower when we got back to the village, but we got a little lost on the road of life..."

Turning back to see the Hokage trying to keep from breaking out into a smile, Sakura started to feel like things were going to be all right.

ooOoo

A/N: Epilogue to come. The epilogue could also serve as the prologue for a sequel, but it's not clear to me how much interest there is in a follow up story. 


	13. Epilogue

A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the outpouring of support after the last chapter. Sorry to go all review-whore on you there, it's just seems like sequels often lose a lot of audience interest compared to their predecessors. I now feel like there's enough of a buffer of audience interest that it's worth continuing, which makes me happy since I have most of the next story worked out in my head.

Be aware that Fuu has been arbitrarily de-aged for the purposes of the story.

On a separate note, the sequel to this story (Appeal of Authority) is now available on my profile. If you could head over there and throw me a follow, that would be swell.

There are some end notes after the chapter in case you're curious about my thought process as I was writing this. A little self indulgent, I know, but I'm feeling pretty good about completing a (nearly) 100,000 word story. In my experience that's pretty rare. I'll let you guys read the chapter while I'm patting my own back over here...

ooOoo

Konoha's Torture and Interrogation group divided its prisoners into two categories: those they thought might eventually be set free, and those who would only be leaving the building in a funeral urn. The cells meant for the first group usually weren't occupied for long, acting mostly as holding facilities for ninja awaiting judgment from the Hokage. Right now their only "guest" was a young girl who was just finishing her warm-up stretches.

Sakura knew that she was never going to cut an intimidating figure. Standing just a shade over five feet tall with a mop of pink hair, she naturally had a hard time staring anybody down. Now, one week after her fifteenth birthday, she was starting to think that she was never going to develop much of a figure at all. The prison jumpsuit she was wearing wasn't exactly flattering, but Sakura knew that her assets weren't exactly easy to flatter. She wasn't truly unhappy with her lean body structure-any observer who looked past the pink hair would note the subtle muscle tone in her arms and legs, and no kunoichi worth the name had any extra weight around the middle-but she wouldn't have minded carrying just a little bit of excess fat, if it were properly distributed.

Sakura grumbled a bit as she began performing push-ups. There wasn't much to do to pass the time in her cell, and she didn't want to lose the conditioning that she had worked so hard to develop. The exercise helped on both counts. It was hard to believe that she had returned to Konoha only three weeks ago, having succesfully lead her team on a mission (of sorts) that resulted in the death of Orochimaru and the return of Sasuke Uchiha to the village.

Her stay in lock-up hadn't been as bad as it could have been: she had a cell with a window, and hadn't even been tortured once. Still, it wasn't exactly the result she had imagined once she realized that everybody from Team Seven had made it back to Konoha safe and sound.

"Ninety-nine... one-hundred." Sakura said, counting on the final repetitions before standing up.

She let out a mild huff of frustration as she walked over to the window. It had been a long time since she was the dead weight of her team, but she still hated feeling weak. Living without the use of chakra for three weeks had been very frustrating. A lifetime of chakra use did leave behind significant muscular development, but without the use of chakra-prevented by a sealing array built into the prison-she was reduced the the strength level of a civilian. Resisting the urge to punch the wall, Sakura grabbed the bars above her head and began performing pull-ups while pondering her situation.

Like most of Konoha's institutions, the shinobi justice system bore the stamp of Hiruzen Sarutobi. While the First Hokage had been the visionary who founded the village, and the Second Hokage put Konoha on a sound financial footing through skillful negotiation with the Daimyo, it was the Third who transformed a collection of clans into a cohesive village.

In part he did so simply through the length of his reign. A whole generation of ninja were born, served in Konoha's military, retired, started families, grew old, and died, all in a village run by Hiruzen Sarutobi. Having such stability and competence in the head of the village lessened the need for ninja to turn to their own clan leaders.

More than that, though, Sarutobi established institutions that treated shinobi as individuals, not as members of their clan. Though the Third had often complained about the paperwork his reforms generated, the village bureaucracy did go a long way towards convincing shinobi to think of themselves as part of the village first, and members of their clans second.

Of course, many areas of the village still reflected its history as a collection of clans, with the military discipline system being a prominent example. Historically, commanders were in charge of meting out justice in the field, at their sole discretion. As long as they were able to justify their decision to the clan head, there would be no further repercussions. In day to day affairs back home the word of the clan head was law. In Sakura's experience that sort of thing was still around, with the Hokage taking the place of the clan head.

The Third's innovation was the shinobi tribunal system. If somebody had a complaint against an active-duty shinobi, they could request a formal hearing to be held in the village. Allegations of violations of the Shinobi Code were adjudicated by the Jounin Commander with the aid of a panel of disinterested jounin.

The tribunal system was mostly used by civilians to complain about abusive behavior by shinobi in Konoha. It served a valuable role in convincing villagers that protection from misbehaving ninja could be had from the Hokage, and did not require clan intervention. As far as Sakura knew, she was the first ninja to be reported for behavior that had occurred outside the village. Of course, while a part of her had always wanted to be in the history books, this was not exactly how she wanted to get there.

Sakura let out a soft snort as she found herself unable to continue after her twenty-second pull up. She carefully brought her legs up between her arms and hooked them behind the bars in the window. Once she was sure they were secure she leaned back and began a set of inverted sit-ups.

The frustrating part was that she knew that if Tsunade really wanted her to be free, she would be free. Everybody involved in the system served at the pleasure of the Hokage, and if the Hokage ordered that charges be dropped, they would be dropped. Sakura had a feeling that if it were Naruto in her situation, he would never have spent a night in jail. Tsunade had a soft spot for Sakura's teammate that went beyond the respect and affection that the Hokage felt for all active duty ninja. Sakura had passed up a chance to develop that kind of relationship with the Hokage when she turned down her offer of apprenticeship, which was coming back to bite her now.

The problem she had from a more technical legal point of view was that the charges brought against her were, in fact, true. All of the false evidence planted by Kabuto had been unravelled, but Sakura was still facing possible execution because somebody had reported her little run-in with Kurenai.

When she was trying to get Sasuke back, Yuuhi Kurenai had ordered her to return to the village. Sakura had defied that order, and had taken two of Kurenai's genin hostage in order to get her to back down. There were at least five provisions in the Shinobi Code that covered that situation, and four of them carried execution as the recommended punishment.

In the end nobody had been hurt and the mission turned out well. Kakashi had had a talk with Sakura about the appropriate way to handle that type of situation in the future, and Kurenai had seemed content to let the matter go. However, somebody had put a formal complaint in to the Jounin Commander's office. Once the office had the complaint, they had to investigate, and once it looked like the complaint was probably true, they had taken Sakura into custody. The situation was further complicated by the fact that Tsunade had classified everything having to do with Team Seven's actions while they were out of the village, which made it hard for Sakura to tell her side of the story.

Sakura dropped down from the bars and caught herself on the floor, briefly holding herself in a handstand before flipping back to her feet. Taking a deep breath, she started working through the closest thing to a kata that she could manage in the confined space. It was really just a series of transitions from stance to stance, but it at least provided some semblance of a leg workout. Her body moved on autopilot as she continued to try to work out her best move for the future.

Sakura didn't really understand much about the high-level political maneuvering that went on in Konoha other than the fact that it existed. Getting involved in that kind of thing when you weren't a pretty high-level ninja yourself was a messy way to commit suicide. She had always been content to keep her head down, keep training, and let the politics take care of itself. After all, trying to keep up with her teammates was a full time job in itself.

But now somebody had it out for her. There was no other explanation for a complaint being filed by somebody other than the aggrieved party. Sakura knew she probably wasn't the ultimate target of this particular power play-really, it was just an indicator that she was now seen as a sufficiently valuable piece that she was worth removing from the table. The awkward thing was that she didn't even know which political faction she was ostensibly allied with. That was going to have to change.

"Prisoner zero-one-two, assume the position." The familiar voice jolted Sakura out of her thoughts, and she took a moment to wipe the sweat off of her forehead before stepping into the circles that had been laid out on the floor and placing her hands into two matching circles on the cell wall. Shortly after she had assumed the position the circles began to glow, locking her in place. Once she was secure, the cell door swung open to admit the distinctive figure of Anko Mitarashi.

"Today's the big day, pinky," Anko commented, as she walked over to Sakura and began wrapping two strips of paper around her wrists. Anko was not one to observe the formalities when her boss wasn't there to police her behavior.

The markings on the paper around Sakura's wrist began to glow with a soft blue light as the two ends of the paper fused together seamlessly. Anko smiled at the sight and walked over to rap out a complicated pattern on the bars of the cell. When she finished, the restraining circles released Sakura, who responded by shaking the stiffness out of her arms.

"You ready for this?" Anko asked, taking Sakura by the arm and leading her out of the cell.

Sakura smiled when she felt chakra rush through her system for the first time in weeks. The restraining seals around her wrist would have prevented such a thing, had they not been replaced with look-a-likes that were nothing more than fancy night lights.

"Yeah," Sakura said. "I'm ready to get this over with."

Sakura thought that three weeks in a cell and a possible death sentence were pretty poor rewards for the death of Orochimaru. She wasn't the only one to think so.

ooOoo

Deep in the hinterlands of River Country, there was a cave. It was not the sort of cave that most people would look twice at, in part because it was truly unremarkable and in part because of the subtle genjutsu encouraging them to stay away. A traveler who shrugged off the genjutsu and entered the cave would have been rewarded with the sight of a magnificent cavern-which would be the last thing the traveler saw, as the S-ranked ninja who occupied the cave were not fond of visitors.

Beyond the cavern there was a maze of hallways that led to temporary living space, storage areas, meeting rooms, and all the other bits and pieces that made up one of Akatsuki's secret bases. Two teenagers were casually making their way down a hallway, walking with a confidence that would have surprised an observer who did not know their identities.

The apparent elder of the two was seventeen, and stood a good few inches taller than his companion. He wore his blonde hair long, with the casual disregard for practicality that one earns by tweaking the nose of a major ninja village and blowing up everybody sent in pursuit. His name was Deidara, and although he knew he wasn't the strongest shinobi in the world, he also knew that the list of men he must fear was short enough that he had learned every name on it.

His companion didn't look any older than fifteen, and his tousled mop of red hair combined with his short stature made him look a little younger. As he walked down the hallway, his face remained perfectly placid, even as he glanced down at the small bundle in his arms. Sasori of the Red Sands never displayed any emotion without a deliberate effort.

"How's the brat?" Deidara asked.

"Yugito is doing well., Sasori said, before placing a hand on the child and focusing briefly. "The seal is functioning within acceptable parameters."

"The name thing still seems creepy to me," Deidara said, "I mean, her body is still cooling off back there-"

"The Leader was originally going to just give them numbers. When I convinced him that names would be useful for their psychological development," Sasori said, "he decided that this system would be easiest for him to keep track of. If you like, I could tell him that you think his decision was wrong..."

"Hey, hey, no need for that," Deidara said, all of his previous composure gone as he lifted his hands in a warding gesture. "I was just talking, you know? You don't need to take everything so seriously, yeah?"

"Our organization is not one for small talk," Sasori replied.

"Yeah, but maybe you should lighten up a little," Deidara said. "I mean, how else are you going to learn to enjoy those moments of genuine artistic beauty?"

"True art is beauty that stands the test of time," Sasori said.

"Yeah, yeah," Deidara said, waving his hand dismissively, before settling down and fixing Sasori with a serious look. "Speaking of the test of time, do you ever worry that we're going to be replaced with the new model, here?"

"I, at least, don't feel threatened by a bunch of children," Sasori replied, shrugging disdainfully.

"They aren't going to stay kids forever," Deidara grumbled. "It's just, this whole plan kind of feels like the Leader is saying we're not good enough."

"The Leader plans for the long term. And in the short term we are denying a weapon to our enemies," Sasori said. "Besides, are you really going to complain about having too many strong shinobi on our side? If their efforts give you a little more free time you may even learn to appreciate actual art."

"Hey, I appreciate art just fine!" Deidara replied. "I'm not some thug that just blows things up at random, you know. There's a lot of planning and consideration that goes into creating just the right explosion at just the right moment..."

"It's not art if there's no lasting legacy for others to admire," Sasori said, then held up his hand to forestall a reply as they stopped in front of a door. "Enough. It's annoying that you continue to try to convince me of your foolish ideas, but I'll not have you providing a bad influence on impressionable young minds."

Sasori glanced over at his companion and, after confirming that he would stay quiet, opened the door and entered the small room carved out of the solid rock. Soon after they entered they were assaulted by a green and white blur, which resolved itself into the form of a young girl clinging to Sasori's legs. It was a testament to his ability as a ninja that he did not rock backwards at all upon impact. His face, however, did soften into a smile as he looked down at the mop of green hair that was all that he could see of Fuu.

"Uncle Sasori! You came!" Fuu said, then looked up, her orange eyes examining him closely. "This is a lot quicker than usual... did you bring me a present?"

"Indeed I did," Sasori said, gently prying Fuu off of his legs before kneeling down and presenting the bundle he was holding for her inspection. "Meet your new sister, Yugito."

"Another one?" Fuu asked, displeased.

"I thought you would be happy to have another playmate," Sasori said, raising an eyebrow. "She's going to look up to you, you know."

"I know," Fuu said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down at where she was scuffing the ground with her toe. "It's just, you don't visit as much any more... and I like being your favorite niece."

"I love all of my nieces and nephews, Fuu, I don't have a favorite," Sasori said seriously, before reaching out gently with his free hand to place a finger under her chin and raise her gaze to meet his eyes. "But if I did have a favorite, it would be you."

"Really?" Fuu asked, her face breaking into a grin that could light up the room at Sasori's answering nod. "You're the best, Uncle Sasori!"

"Thank you," Sasori said, then stood. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to introduce Yugito to your caretaker."

"'kay," Fuu said, taking a step back and appearing to notice Deidara for the first time. With a happy squeal, she grabbed his arm and began dragging him into the center of the room. "C'mon, let's play ninja!"

ooOoo

Sakura kept her expression neutral as she entered the room where her trial would be held. Looking nervous would have been an embarassment for herself and her instructor, while looking unjustifiably upbeat in a room full of ninja was not a great way to keep secrets.

The room itself was impressive. Usually a meeting room on the ground floor of Hokage Tower, it had undergone a metamorphosis for the occasion. At the front of the room there was a raised platform, atop which was an imposing podium that was currently unoccupied. Off to the side of the podium was a small seating area that contained a small group of ninja, all dressed alike in black robes and blank porcelain masks. The panel of ninja that were to assist that Jonin Commander in deciding the result of the trial were traditionally anonymous, but Sakura could rule out some individuals as she swept her eyes over the other half of the room.

The back of the room had been transformed into a viewing gallery, seating row after row of shinobi. Sakura wasn't sure if they had been sitting quietly before-most ninja weren't particularly chatty by nature-but the room was certainly silent as she walked in. As Sakura scanned the crowd her eyes paused only briefly when she saw Kakashi and received a nod from her sensei that most would take as a simple greeting.

Sakura was also heartened to see Naruto sitting next to Kakashi. Her irrepressible teammate had been troubled by some of her actions on their last mission together, and in the press of events they had never had a chance to talk things over. He hadn't been able to visit her in her cell, and the hurried discussions she had had with Kakashi had not left time to hash out her personal issues. Seeing Naruto here in the audience was a relief. He looked troubled, but it was pretty clear that he had a problem with Sakura's situation rather than with Sakura herself.

Anko lead Sakura across the room to the table set aside for the accused. Sakura held her head high as she felt the weight of the crowd's attention, every eye following her as she walked. She knew that her legal case was hopeless, but that was no reason to look nervous. She was pretty sure that somebody in Konoha's upper echelon would take an interest in her and protect her from the results of this proceeding-she was too valuable of a tool to just throw away. And if nobody showed up to save her, well, she had a plan for that too.

Sitting down, Sakura allowed a tiny trickle of chakra from her feet to mix with the ground beneath the defendant's table. It took considerable effort to keep a smile off her face at the result.

The entire room was covered with a complicated sealing array that protected the integrity of the walls, ceiling, and floor. Sakura herself should be unable to do anything anyway because of the chakra suppressing seals on her wrists, but no ninja worthy of her forehead protector would rely on a security plan with a single point of failure.

Isolating even a small area of the floor from the effects of the array was a difficult assignment. It was the kind of thing that required a ninja with a good working knowledge of seals, the high level of infiltration training necessary to get into the building beforehand, and an in-village information network that would let him know where the hearing was going to take place. It wouldn't hurt to have a Sharingan eye, either, so the chakra flows of the sealing array would be visible while he worked on a counter-seal.

It was a little surprising how many people underestimated Kakashi just because he was a lazy pervert who spent most of his time reading pornography.

Sakura attention was drawn away from her planning when a murmur arose from the crowd. She looked up and saw that Tsunade had just entered the room. The Hokage walked serenely over to the space that had been reserved for her in the observation area and took her seat, observing the crowd with a placid smile on her face that revealed nothing of what she was thinking.

Shortly after the Hokage sat down there was a popping sound at the front of the room, and Jonin Commander Shikaku Nara appeared in a puff of smoke at his podium. He immediately ruined the effect of his dramatic entrance by falling into his habitual slouch.

"All right, let's get this over with," shikaku said visibly stifling a yawn.

Sakura bristled at his casual attitude towards a trial where her life was at least theoretically at stake, but did her best not to show it. At first her restraint was based mostly on pride, but as she caught the glint of a sharp intelligence in Shikaku's gaze, it occurred to her that it was best not to expose too much of what she was thinking to the man who had earned the right to lead Konoha's jonin.

Shikaku began the proceedings by calling Yuuhi Kurenai to testify. The red-eyed kunoichi had traded in her usual field outfit for a rather severe version of the standard jonin uniform. Wearing a flak jacket over a simple combination of dress and shorts, she looked every inch the professional shinobi that she was.

Kurenai first described the efforts of Team Eight in hunting down Sakura and Naruto. Sakura found the glimpse into the work of a tracking team to be fascinating. Of the three genin on the team, Shino had the largest effective range of detecting with his bugs, but the delay involved in reporting results prevented him from giving the team more than just a general direction to go. Once he had guided them to the right area, Kiba and Akamaru were able to follow the trail directly to their quarry. As the team closed in, Hinata's Byakugan was able to precisely pinpoint Sakura and Naruto's location. Sakura was surprised to learn that they had been under observation for almost half an hour before Kurenai had placed a genjutsu on them.

Kurenai smoothly described the first few steps of the capture: the genjutsu, Sakura's escape from it, her neutralization of Kiba and Hinata. She hesitated as she described the standoff between herself and Sakura. Sakura almost smiled as she realized the dilemma Kurenai faced-Sakura had been able to call her bluff in large part because a kunai to the throat wasn't much of a threat to the jinchuuriki carrying the Kyuubi, but Naruto's status was still technically an S-rank secret. Shikaku seemed to realize the problem as well.

"You can skip anything having to do with village secrets," he said, "it would be too troublesome to have to have another trial right after this one."

Kurenai nodded and then explained that she had backed down based on her assessment of the tactical situation. Sakura suppressed a smile at the result-if you didn't know that she had to worry about the prospect of facing an enraged jinchuuriki, it sounded like Kurenai thought that she and Shino together weren't favored in a fight against Sakura.

Kurenai finished her testimony by describing the hour long wait before Sakura's clones had dissolved, releasing their hostages. Shikaku thanked her for her testimony and, once the jounin had returned to the observation area, asked Sakura if she had anything she would like to add. Sakura stood before she replied.

"I would like to," Sakura said, "but I'm afraid everything relevant that I could talk about is classified."

"Well then, unless anybody would like to declassify that information..." Shikaku said, trailing off as every eye turned to Tsunade. The Hokage said nothing, and her small smile may as well have been carved in ivory for all of the emotion it conveyed. "Then I think I've heard enough. We'll take a brief recess and be back with a decision."

Sakura sat back down and watched as Shikaku and the panel filed into a back room where they could discuss the case in private. So much for any surprises going her way during the trial. For the first time she started to feel nervous tension building up in her stomach. It seemed like time was moving unbearably slowly, but somehow also felt like no time at all had passed before Shikaku re-entered the room and Sakura stood to hear the verdict.

"Well, this is a pretty clear cut case of insubordination, as well as assaulting Konoha forces. Usually the penalty for either offense is death." Shikaku said, then paused. Sakura let chakra seep out of her feet, ready to drop into the tunnel beneath the floor on an instant's notice. "However, Lady Hokage is merciful. She has agreed to suspend your sentence if you will agree to two years of confinement to the village, to be supervised by the Hokage herself."

Sakura whirled around to stare at Tsunade, along with most of those present. The Hokage's expression didn't waver, although after a moment she raised an eyebrow at Sakura. Sakura was suddenly certain that she knew exactly what Sakura was thinking.

Sakura was torn. Being stuck in the village would be a big change from the relatively free rein she had had as part of the Jutsu Theft Squad. She thought longingly of the tunnel beneath her feet, the carefully planned escape route, the safe houses scattered around Fire Country... still, it was one thing to go on the run to avoid a death sentence, but quite another to do so just to avoid spending two years in Konohagakure.

"Of course I'll accept," Sakura said, keeping her gaze on the Hokage.

One corner of Tsunade's mouth curled up in a satisfied smile, and Sakura began to wonder exactly what set of forces had scripted this little drama.

ooOoo

So, some end notes:

- I first got into Naruto via fanfiction. As you might expect, I started out with a pretty heavy diet of super-ish Naruto, loser Kakashi, harpy Sakura, and no-redeeming-features Sasuke. Despite starting out with a lot of what I now recognize as fanon-based mediocrity, I really loved the setting. Then I went out and bought the (pre-time-skip) manga collection.

- What a difference. Kakashi is cool! Sasuke is kind of a lovable jerk! Sakura has potential! Coming back to the fandom with new eyes, I found it harder to find stuff I wanted to read, but the stuff I was reading was much better.

- As an aside, I generally like fics that find creative ways to explain why plot holes aren't really plot holes, rather than fics that try to exploit plot holes to justify dramatic changes in characterization (e.g. I'd rather read about why Naruto's childhood was the best the Sandaime could do, instead of why Naruto's childhood shows the Sandaime secretly hated him).

- Anyways, even then, I noticed nobody was really writing Sakura the way I'd like to see her written. The weak but skilled character has a lot of potential, especially when the skill involved is ninja magic, but Sakura rarely gets featured as a front line fighter, let alone an action protagonist.

- I think a lot of this can be put on the manga portrayal. Sakura gets a brief flash of relevance immediately post timeskip in the Sasori fight, but then fades into the background as Naruto gets buried under a rain of power-ups falling from the sky. Also, while the story makes some effort to do things that work with Naruto's strong-but-unskilled skill set (summoning, shadow clone, rasengan), Sakura never really gets anything that plays to her strengths. She learns tree-climbing faster, but that's about it. If she learns things quickly and her sensei knows 1000 techniques, why doesn't she learn any? I'm pretty sure that we still haven't seen her use any elemental techniques-just Academy basics and medical (and strength) techniques.

- So a lot of what motivated this was that I wanted to do action protagonist Sakura, consistent with how I saw her character. This meant she needed her own antagonist, both because there was no reason for the existing antagonists to really come after her and because every protagonist really needs a thematically appropriate antagonist. Enter Kabuto, evil ninja medic. I think there's a lot of potential there for an evil mentor type relationship. I'd like to see more stories out there with Kabuto as the primary antagonist-note I said Kabuto, not Kabuto injected with a million different people's DNA and his zombie army.

- Another question I was looking to answer here was "what would it take for Sasuke to experience the tsun-tsun side of Sakura's personality?" She's always so sickeningly sweet towards him, both in the manga and in 99% of fanfics (except for the ones where she is somehow convinced to completely hate him, which isn't exactly what I was looking for). Ironically I think canon Sasuke would have been more interested in a Sakura who showed a little more backbone (I thought Loyalty by a True Radical Dreamer did a good job exploring the idea).

- A note on power levels: I'm trying to draw a roughly straight line between the chuunin exams and the power levels on display in the Invasion of Konoha by Pain, instead of the somewhat herky-jerky advances generated by the shonen format (two years offscreen and you learn nothing, one week-long montage and you get a new ultimate attack). Right now we're about a year into the time skip-if the Team Seven kids were promoted to jounin they wouldn't be the weakest jounin in Konoha, but it would be close. The three are supposed to be roughly on a level, with Sakura taking the slight edge in ninja sneakiness while giving up a similar edge in pure combat power. Obviously I'm not resolving in-story combat by use of math or anything, but I wanted to give you guys an idea of what I'm thinking. Hopefully this has come out in the story so far.

- Thanks again for sticking with me to the end! See you in the sequel... 


End file.
